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Cottam, F G - 'The Waiting Room'
Hardback: 304 pages (June 2010) Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton ISBN: 1444704214

THE WAITING ROOM is another spine-chilling treat from F G Cottam, one that will leave you somewhat disturbed and feeling as if somebody is watching you. As with THE MAGDALENA CURSE, this book is so well written, and with such rich vocabulary, that it transports you to the place it is talking about and you get the sensation that you are watching the action with your own eyes.

Julian Creed is a fake psychic with his own popular TV show. He doesn't even believe in ghosts but all this changes when he is contacted by Julian Stride; a former rock star with a bit of a problem. A terrifying, leering, World War One soldier is frightening his family and haunting the abandoned, old, station waiting room that is situated near the boundary of his estate. Creed volunteers to spend the night in the waiting room and comes out of the experience a changed man. He orders his researcher to find out more about the history of the place and what they discover chills them to the bone. An exorcism may or may not be the solution to the problem and it ends up being a race against time to try and save Stride and his family from a secret so horrible that it has already driven several people insane, and threatens to do so again.

The twist at the end of the book is just wonderful - and made even more so by the tantalizing little epilogue. I have several criteria before I will consider a book to be truly outstanding. These are: it has to have an original and interesting storyline, it also has to be well written, with excellent grammar and a really rich vocabulary, and it has to keep me guessing right to the end. All of these are satisfied by THE WAITING ROOM and I can't recommend it to you highly enough. I am rapidly becoming a big fan of this author. Next please!

Amanda C M Gillies, Scotland
July 2010

More European crime fiction reviews can be found on the Reviews page.



last updated 25/07/2010 09:45