Midnight is a Lonely Place by Barbara Erskine

[MysteryMind]

Yes, another Barbara Erskine. Again, she weaves historical fiction into the present with the element of the real supernatural rather than just the sense of the supernatural. After reading only two, I get this idea that she likes to delve into obsessions and possessions.

The plot revolves around an historical biographer who rents a cottage on the Essex coast to write her next book after splitting with her partner. Her goal is to write about Lord Byron, but she becomes interested in Boadicea/Boudicca after learning about how she led the native Britons against the Romans. The landlord's daughter uncovers a Roman burial site near the cottage and unleashes the spirits of those buried there. Both the past and present contain a love triangle which resolve themselves in the end.

The supernatural elements never fail to give me goosebumps. I think both Barbara Erskine and Barbara Michaels work these elements well.

[Charybdis]

I tried reading this one but gave up on page 60. I didn't like anything of it. The people don't get sympathetic, the storyline seems very predictable, the writing style doesn't speak to me, longwinded, unusual wordings and headhopping, and I wouldn't classify this as a gothic at all.
Free book, anyone?

[random capitals]

Isn't it funny how different people can have such varied reactions to the same book.
I read this one years ago and really enjoyed it. Like MysteryMind I loved the supernatural elements, something I think Barbara Erskine does very well.
I do find, like many authors, it best not to read too many of her works in succession though or else I become too accustomed to the style and the works become predictable. But that often happens if I glut on any single author, not just Erskine.

[sara]

This book started out promising for me, I liked the setting and the idea of curses / spirits from the past being caught up in the present. Unfortunately there was just too much padding getting in the way of the story. After 150 or so pages in not very much had happened, and, with another 350 to go, the thought of reading yet another tedious description of Kate going into the wood shed to re-light that bloody stove of hers just made me put the book aside for something else.