Judith Hawkes

Impressive, highly atmospheric haunted house story may be too slow-moving or lack the extreme frights needed to satisfy some readers. But Hawkes impressively creates a mystery of what happened in a house in a small New England town where tenant after tenant has left in a hurry. A young pair of psychic researchers, married less than a year, move into the house and begin a very scientific investigation. The author includes passages of textbook descriptions of various psychic phenomena, making the book sort of the Moby Dick of haunted house stories--if you don't understand my reference, take a glance at an unabridged copy of Moby Dick. The elderly local librarian becomes their ally in trying to track down facts about the house and its occupants, and he emerges as the third major character. But it is Sally, the wife, who has shown strong telepathic ability, but who has never wanted to be a medium or has any training, who emerges as the emotional center of the book. She watches her husband, David, seem to be transformed by the power of the house, and perhaps by a former occupant. Or does she? The book provides other characters who try to downplay the phenomena. After all, the mind can conjure up most anything. I think the author's intent here is clear however, and one is left to speculate about what might happen after the last page of the book is turned. It is an effective ending. Go into this one with an open mind, and you should be well entertained. For the most part, Hawkes writes very well, although at times the descriptions can go on for a few words too many. Comparisons to Shirley Jackson are somewhat apt, although this book is too long to have the impact of Jackson's best work.… (mehr)

Sally and David Curtiss knew that the old New England house that they had just moved into was rumored to be haunted. However, the newly wed couple of parapsychologists were not scared at all. They had bought the house willingly and planned on studying it in order to find any evidence of supernatural activity.

Sally and David have also planned to work on some recent problems in their marriage. Sally is a somewhat reluctant psychic, and David is secretly jealous of her abilities. He has never had any psychic experiences himself, but desperately wants to have such an experience.

All of the Curtiss' hi-tech equipment shows absolutely no sign of any supernatural activity, but David is still convinced that Sally senses something in the house. As the Curtiss' continue to research the the house's strange and mysterious history, they both begin to experience unusual dreams that reveal the Curtiss' hidden fears and desires.

I have to say that I really enjoyed this book. The horror built slowly but surely, and the book was very well-written in my opinion. I never actually figured out what form the haunting took. At times it seemed to me that it was primarily possession that was at work, and then it seemed that the house itself had developed a personality throughout the years that was an evil influence in itself.

If I did have one problem with the book, it was that I found that the ending slightly rushed and a little bit of a let down for me. Overall though, I give Julian's House by Judith Hawkes an A+! I will definitely be keeping this book to read again at some point.… (mehr)

On a mountainside in Tennessee lies an abandoned quarry, flooded long ago by an underground river. There, in the gathering shadows of a winter twilight, something happened to nine-year-old Nan Lucas. Something that left her daredevil playmate, Tucker Wills, dead and young Nan's mind crippled, unable to recall the horror.

Now a trendy Manhattan fashion photographer, Nan Lucas returns to Tennessee twenty years later, seeking to recover from a collapsed marriage. In the old farmhouse inherited from her grandmother, she begins to reorder her priorities - among them, forming a more solid relationship with her young son, Stephen. Common sense tells her that the imaginary playmate who consumes so much of Stephen's time is only a normal invention for a little boy who has no companion his own age.

Yet Nan cannot ignore her mounting fears that the mysterious figure Stephen calls 'Woody' is both very real and very dangerous. Joining forces with an old mountain woman who is rumored to possess the gift of second sight, she struggles to save Stephen from the shadowy companion who seems to be compelling him toward destruction. Yet as hope and time runs out, Nan comes to realize that she must somehow pierce the veil of her forgotten past and reach into the dark recesses of her memory to rediscover what happened at the quarry, on the long-ago winter night that Tucker Wills died.

I must say that I absolutely loved this book. I thought that it was extremely scary - but it was the subtle, psychological type of horror that I really enjoy. Judith Hawkes is a new author to me, and My Soul to Keep is the first book of hers that I have read. I believe that Judith Hawkes has written at least two other books, and I have placed both of them on my Wish List. I give My Soul to Keep by Judith Hawkes an A+!… (mehr)