Review: Suspense and a ghost story too
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 28, 2013
According to her website, Stephanie has a love of the dark dangerous world of Victorian sensation writing and that love comes across strongly in her first book, The Room Beyond. Part suspense, part ghost story and set in both Victorian and present day London the book is full of mysteries, which like any good ghost story aren’t all explained or resolved until the very end.Stephanie has woven an intriguing set of very dysfunctional and not altogether likeable characters (for reasons which become clear as you read about their various motivations) into her story which revolves around the linking of past events to the present day.Three women dominate the story line, Serena in the present day, Miranda and Lucinda in the past and it is in their ‘relationships’ that the story really comes alive. It is not an obvious ghost story as it contains a glorious set of different story lines involving romance, horror and even madness, each of which might have been sufficient in itself. But it does reach a very satisfying conclusion which results in Serena who, although naive, is nicest of all the participants escaping much wiser than she was when she started. This could be the ideal read for those who love a Christmas ghost story.