Aylciffe, Jonathan. The vanishment. New York: Harper,1994. 227pp.

Jonathan Aycliffe, who also writes thrillers under the name Daniel Easterman, is a very accomplished horror writer. I've read two other of his novels, The lost and The matrix and they were both terrific. The vanishment is no disappointment either. It's a subtle, spooky novel that relies on a building sense of unease rather than a gory payoff (not that there's anything wrong with the occasional gory payoff, of course).

Writer Peter Clare and his wife are vacationing at an old house on the Cornish coast when she mysteriously disappears. The investigation reveals little but Peter does end up delving into the ghostly past of the house. An interesting blend of ghost story and haunted house mixed with a possibly unreliable narrator make for a fun novel. Peter is never less than an interesting character who unwittingly draws others into the supernatural crossfire.