Strange goings on

No you are not mistaken... the lay out and look of the blog has changed!!!! Although the person writing it has not changed... no new template for that. I found this new option to edit the look of your blog and had a little play around. Managed to find a really appropriate background, some nice new colours and now it looks a bit more snazzy. Once I figure out how to change the picture again I might even do that!

The book I have just finished is a non-fiction one and there is not plot to spoil so I will not be putting any "spoiler alert" up for this review. So if you don't want to know if the book ends with and index or not do not read on!!


This House is Haunted - Guy Lyon Playfair
The subtitle of the book is "The Investigation into the Enfield Poltergeist".
I remember coming across the name Enfield Poltergeist years and years ago. I am not really sure any more why I came across it but I can remember many years ago reading something about it and thinking "jeez that's interesting". At the time I did not find out much more about it other than the fact that there was some weird stuff going on in England. Actually, looking at it now, if it played out in '77-'79 I was just a young lass so maybe I heard something on the news or read about it in some magazine or other. I was one of those weird kids who loved to read and look up stuff in books when other kids were off playing hide and seek. When, years later, I started reading more about ghost stories, ghost hunting and all sorts of other weird and wonderful things I came across the name again. The final time the Enfield case came back into my life was when I went on my book buying trip to Hay on Wye last year. I found this one shop (they actually sold more than two books on ghosts) and I noticed this one so I just had to get it.
The book gives an account of what happened in a house in Enfield over a period of almost two years (the trouble started in August 1977 and ended mid 1979). The case came to the attention of the SPR in 1977 and was taken up by Maurice Grosse. He visited the house on several occasions, talked to all the people involved and kept extensive records of what went on in the house. The author of the book was also involved with the investigation himself and spent days, weeks and months collecting data, talking to family member and witnessing events as they unfolded in the house. The book has one of the best opening lines I have ever seen:
"What would you do if a piece of your furniture suddenly slid along the floor in front of your eyes? Think for a moment, and be honest with yourself. What would you actually do? [p vii]

This is a very good question. I would probably freak out and think "I did not just see that!!". Then I would probably call mr Playfair and ask him if he would mind awfully stopping by my place at his earliest convenience. By asking the quesstion of what you would do the author very quickly tries to involve you into his experiences. He gets you to think about what you would do if it was happening to you and makes you curious as to what the people did in the case he investigated.
In essence the books is a blow by blow account of the events that happened in this normal looking house in Enfield. You gain a very good insight into what happened to this unassuming English family and I must say it is simply staggering: pieces of furniture are moved, tables turned upside down, voices heard, people being thrown out of bed, puddles of water appearing out of nowhere, tape recorders being switched off and on at will, doors opened and kept closed... the list goes on and on. Even if half of the things that have been recorded in this book happened to the family it is a miracle that not all of them went stark raving mad. Apart from Grosse and Playfiar telling you their experiences they also relate what happened when various "experts" and experts came round to the house and what their findings were. Not surprisingly our investigators meet with a lot of criticism, disbelief and ridicule. Many of the "scientists" that visit the house seem more keen to prove them wrong than that they are willing to look at what is happening objectively. However, our duo they keep on investigating, gathering evidence and in the end build up a solid case of the events that took place over the almost two years that they were visiting (and at times living with) the family. Some things that the experts suggest make the situation in the house more livable whereas others just seem to aggravate the situation. In the end it feels that with all the things they have seen and recorded they have managed to construct a very strong case for the existence of poltergeists and that this was a genuine case of a family being haunted by one (or more than one perhaps?). It seems very unlikely that the whole family, over a course of almost two years would disrupt their own lives so several and be consistently reporting the same phenomena just to have a bit of media attention.
It is interesting that after all their investigating neither Playfair nor Grosse have been able to come to a clear conclusion on what the exact entity/force/energy is that defines the poltergeist. Playfair and Gross seem to be leaning towards the explanation that:

"there is a still unidentified natural force generated by human beings in certain stressful conditions, and that this force can be manipulated by a secondary personality in such a way that it gives us the impression of intelligent action by a separate individual." [p 289]

However, in the Enfield case even when one of the centres of activity is removed from the house strange things still happen, albeit less often and extreme than before. At one point Playfair also suggests that poltergeist are like a variety of Gilles de La Tourette syndrome. As in Tourettes acts by poltergeists are sudden, uncontrolled, in the Enfield case the voices speak in obscenities and swear a lot and there are grunting barking like noises also produced by Tourettes sufferers. However, I don't quite see how the two are linked and Playfair does not really seems to pursue the link too far?

You think that you would be disappointed that at the end of the book Playfair and Grosse are no closer to finding out how of why things happened in Enfield than they were when they were first called in but I was not. What is clear to me is that the field of psychic research has some some slippery customers to deal with, ones that are not easily categorised, defined or labeled. This might explain to some extent why some people struggle to believe events like the ones that occurred in Enfield. The human race tends to want to be able to poke or prod something to see what it does and we like things to do the same thing every time. Science likes to have something tangible to test and study but unfortunately this is not always what the world of psychic research gives us to study. To me it makes life more interesting.


PS: and for those who want to know, there is no index!!!


Title: This House is Haunted
Author: Guy Lyon Playfair
308 pages
Sutton Publishing
ISBN nr 978-0-7509-4836-4

Books to be read: 73

Great Heights

I noticed that it has been a while since I last finished a book (I might need to adjust that planning of a book every 2 weeks), but now that the world cup has ended and I am curbing the time spent playing Mahjong on my Nintendo DSI I seem to have some time to read/finish a book! It has also helped that I am not spending this weekend helping a friend move house. So, after getting nearly to the end last night I have today managed to finish my book.
It's a detective one and is part of my "Reading the Detectives" reading plan. Apart from ghost stories I really like reading detectives as well and the plan is to read as many different ones as I can. Judging from the crime sections I have seen in online shops and in the major book shops in town I still have a fair way to go before I have read at least one of each crime author but hey.... I've got time, patience and a great ferocity to read on my side!


#### SPOILER ALERT ####

On Beulah Height - Reginald Hill
This was the first one of this author I have read and it was a good one! It features the detectives Dalziel and Pascoe (known from the tv series named after them). I must say I never really got into watching them on telly but have seen bits of some of the episodes. In a way this was good because I could use the look of the actors I know to have played them in my head but not have them impede on my interpretation of what they did and how they acted too much whilst reading.

There are several stories that play out in this book. One of them is about some girls who went missing in the little village of Dendale about 15 years ago. This storyline tells you a little about who was lost, how the investigation was run (Dalziel was one of the officers investigating what went on then) and who was thought to have been involved in the disappearances. The main part of this story is told by the testimony of one of the local girls who was attacked but managed to get away. The rest of the blanks are filled in by various people reading the report on the Dendale case and with the memories of the officers that were involved with the case then and are still in the force now.
Then there is the present day where, 15 years later another girl has disappeared close to where the others went missing and Dalziel and his sidekick Pascoe are called in to find out what happened. Before the investigation even gets out of the starting blocks Pascoe is pushed to the side lines by his daughter becoming really ill and hospitalised. He spends most of the time in the book at her bedside but in spite of that manages to play a very important role in the unfolding of the case. His instincts leads one of the other detectives (Novello) on to discover some major leads and get hold of the major players. There are also the more personal and individual stories of the main characters involved. Dalziel bumping into an old lover, Pascoe's daughter being ill and his recent discoveries about his past, Wield with his gay relationship, his life in the countryside and his love for a little monkey, Novello and her getting to grips with the investigation and how to deal with Dalziel and the male dominated police force she is in. All these are very neatly woven into the main reason for the book - the disappearance of another little girl. The story of what has happened to the little girl does not unfold at a blistering pace but takes its time and it almost seems that the author is more interested in telling you the store of the people in the village and their actions than he is in moving the plot along. When the reveals come they are not in a look at me, thunder and lightening, big flashy show stopper kind of style but almost understated and it seems as we all just happened to stumble on this information and now we know better what happened. As with every good detective story we are not told what exactly leads the detectives to the right man/woman in the end but the story is very nicely wrapped up. There is not one big thing that really leads you to any one suspect. As the investigation goes on things are discovered that could implicate people but nothing definite. Sometimes one person looks a bit guiltier that the other but we get nothing definite until the end chapters. There is off course the obvious red herring, Geordie, but from how he is dealt with (character not developed that much, too much emphasis on him as a potential suspect) you almost know from the start that he will turn out to have nothing to do with the disappearances past or present. He's an opportunist and a slick operator but not a killer. Actually the other red herring is Barney. He is the brother of the man all the villagers thought was responsible for the initial disappearances. His presence lingers through some of the story but he is never emphasised or the character developed so much that you think he is actually the killer.
one of the nice things of the story line is that all the officers involved - Dalziel, Pascoe, Wield, Novello get to contribute their bit to the outcome of the story of the missing girl. Each managed to get important information in their own way that moves the story on. Dalziel even manages to spend some time between the sheets with an old lover! Little discoveries keep being made about the story and little by little the whole thing becomes visible but still we as readers only get little clues and are in the dark for most of it. For me one of the main clues comes when Pascoe's daughter wakes up and points out someone she saw on the day a little girl went missing. We get told she points at someone and as a reader you know the picture she looks at but it is one of 5 people she could be identifying so you are still left with lots of options for the plot to develop.
We get another clue from a revised report from a young girl about the original disappearances and another one when a body is found in the cellar of a house in Dendale. So you do get something but the exact implications are clearer to the characters in the book than they are to you as a reader.
In the end the story focuses on a small group of people who by now are obviously involved. Each of them has some link to the girls that disappeared in the past or were near to where the new girl went missing. Naturally the truth comes out but I must say that the truth was not what I thought it was going to be. Yet when you find out what really happened and think back over the story it all makes sense... why they behaved the way they did and why they kept the secrets that they did for all these years. It's a very human drama that unfolds but yet not overly sentimental of bombastic. Like the rest of the story not everything is spelt out and you as a reader are left to imagine for yourself what happens after the final confession.

What I find interesting as well is the way the characters speak. Hill has given his Dalziel a broad accent. He is described as a big, burly man and his accent and speech seem to fit him to a tee. Pascoe is more understated, educated and pensive - he tends to think more before he speaks and encourages those around him to offer opinions. He is more of a slender guy and more sensitive. Novello is still trying to find her voice. At the beginning of the book she is not sure how to approach either Dalziel of Pascoe and she has to learn how each of them wants to get the fact that she has discovered presented to them. She manages this fine and you can see that she will be a valuable asset to the team in future. Wield is to the point, precise and knows when not to talk. He is perhaps them darkest horse in the squad, the most private and the one that seems to be the least likely to have a major influence on anything yet he manages to bring people together and often is the link between two people making discoveries. Hill defines his characters well and they have a depth to them that is nice to see. Some of the characters on he side line are not that well defined and lack some depth but as you only encounter them a few times that is okay. All his main characters are fleshed out well, have their own motivation for doing what they do and have a developed personal life that is relevant to them and influences and is influenced by the developing plot.


Title: On Beulah Height
Author: Reginald Hill
440 pages
Harper Collins
ISBN nr 0-00-649000-X


Books to be read: 74

Tense moments

Once again it has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am not to be trusted to walk in to a bookshop whilst carrying any form a valid currency or plastic and not come out with a purchase. Yep.. I went to the bookshop in Wolverton and before I knew it I was holding three books and paying for them at the till. Ah well.... just a few more books won't hurt.

Books bought: 3
Books to be read: 76

In between doing usual stuff during the week and over this weekend I have also managed to finish another one. And what a corker it was!


#### SPOILER ALERT #####

The Day of the Jackal - Frederick Forsyth
I had no problem making my mind up on this one. I loved reading it! It had a great pace, good tension build up and the characters in it were interesting and intriguing.
In essence the story if that of an assassin who is hired by a group of plotters who would rather have De Gaulle dead than looking dapper in his uniform. One of the plotters comes up with the idea of a foreign assassin, a complete unknown to the police in France. This type of man seems to be the only one who might be able to rid them of their political leader and start a new era for the plotters. After an extensive search they find their man (An Englishman), agree a code name (The Jackal), and agree a fee to be paid (Half a million dollars) and leave the stranger to his own devices. He has a contact that can feed him information if need be but he will essentially carry out the planning of the hit himself, on his own. Not even the plotters will know when he will strike. There are a number of small things that reveal the existence of a plot to the authorities and at first they are baffled as to how they are to discover a man who has no name and no known whereabouts. However, through dogged police work, some neat little coincidences and some sheer good luck they manage to find out what passports he is using and who he could be impersonating. The Jackal has prepared himself well for this one and he has four different identities he can choose from. The man who supplied him with these does not live to tell the tale but apart form that the death toll our Jackal leaves behind is not that high. He is obviously a very clever and cunning man and can blend into any background. He is not know to any authorities and therein lies his strength. He manages to stay one step ahead of the police almost until the very end. He does get caught in the end and it is good that the man who has headed the investigation in France is the one who ends the hunt. Then in the last few pages you find out that it was a pure stroke of luck that they actually found the name in the first place (will the real Charles Calthrop please stand up?!) and the whole thing seems even more amazing.
What stuck me with this one was the way the book was written. The style is very "meticulous" like the Jackal. It's concise, clean, organised and precise. The whole book feels like that and I guess that is reflected in the character of the Jackal as well. Forsyth does not use elaborate descriptive language to entertain us but he sticks to the facts and lets them speak for themselves. He changes perspective from the Jackal to the other in players in the story so you get to see their reactions to what happens and this makes the whole thing more interesting. There is some distraction away from the main storyline as some of the characters' actions are given some attention but these asides do not stray from the main story too far and serve to develop the plot forwards to the next step. The story moves on quickly, it seems even quicker the nearer we get to the end of the book, as we draw nearer to the time of the hit the developments go quicker and the tension mounts. The reveals are timed well and you as a reader are in sync with them happening so you are neither anxiously waiting for the next reveal or impatiently wanting to see what happens next. The only thing I did think at one point as the Jackal was cruising around France in his car was "does this guy never have to stop for petrol". Fortunately for me the next page he did.
It would take up far too much time to explain all the little twists and turns that lead to the discovery of the Jackal, who he is and where he is holed up. Suffice it to say that if nothing else the story shows how many little things when connected can show you the big picture. At first glance this picture seems to suggest being one thing and then, just when you think you know what the picture is going to be, it changes in front of your eyes into something different and you have to go back and start again. There are so many times the policemen are close to catching our Jackal but each time they miss him by days or hours. The Jackal stays cool, focused and concentrates on getting the job done by whatever means necessary (hence the slight increase in the body count at the end) and he just about pulls it off too. It was a joy to read this one!


Title: The Day of the Jackal
Author: Frederick Forsyth
382 pages
Corgi Books
ISBN: 0 552 09121 0


Books to be Read: 75