Silence for the Dead

I read Lost Among the Living last year and loved it. Since then have I tried to get hold of Simone St. James other books. Silence for the Dead intrigued me with its stunning cover and interesting blurb. What is Kitty Weekes hiding? What's wrong with Portis House? And, what's Jack Yates, the war hero doing there? And, his the place really haunted?Silence for the Dead is an interesting book about a haunted hospital and patients that have mentally broken down by the war and basically are sent away since it's shameful to have a nervous breakdown. I was curious to see how it all would end, what haunted the hospital. However, I have to admit that even though the story was interesting did it lack thrilling elements and I never felt that I connected with any of the characters. It's a good book, just not so thrilling that I had hoped it to be. And the mystery, well, I was not overwhelmed by it, to be honest.This is not one to read if you want a chilling storyline. it felt more like a tragic gothic story with some romance. However, I think that the setting of the hospital, the brutal reality of the effect of the war had on the soldiers is what really captured my interest. If the book had been more about that and less about ghost had I perhaps liked the book more, which is strange since I did read it because I wanted a ghost story...

This is the second book I've read from this author, and I will certainly read more. This novel, to me, was perfect, with an original plot mixing different genres. I like it when authors refuse to fit into a mould.The main character, Kitty, was nowhere near the stereotype woman so many are guilty of writing: she is strong, kind, smart, but not too a point that I want to roll my eyes. I absolutely adored her. Jack, if I'm honest, didn't wow me as much as Matthew did in The Haunting of Maddy Clare, but I still loved him. I liked how he wasn't your typical Alpha male, and showed instead some weaknesses and quiet strength. Actually, scrap that, I liked him as much as Matthew.Each and every character was plausible, complex and realistic. The atmosphere drew me in from the word go, and if I could have awarded this 6 stars, I would have done.

A different slant on WW1, set in 1919, in a remote northern mansion turned into a mental hospital. A scary, page-turning mystery that explores the effects of shell-shock and physical injury on men locked up together. The narrator - a young woman with her own reasons for escaping normal life - seems an unlikely heroine, but her need for answers leads her to be heroic indeed. A fascinating cast of characters locked into a disturbing ghost story.

I just could not get into this book. I had read a novel of Simone St James before and thoroughly enjoyed it but this just didn't grab me. It had everything. The suitably creepy asylum and patients. The horrible head nurse and the mysterious patient in the room that wasn't to be entered but I just don't know what made me stop reading. However, if you're a big fan of this writer you will want to read it.

As yet not read but I suspect it will be a good read.