Title: The Secret of Cold Hill
Author: Peter James
Series: House on Cold Hill #2
Publisher: Macmillan
Synopsis:
Cold Hill House has been demolished to make way for a new housing estate. Luxury-living at its best with high specification gadgets all thrown in – part-exchange available for the right buyers.
The first two families move in, and as soon as they do, the unearthly residents of Cold Hill begin to make themselves known.
Nobody who moves into Cold Hill reaches their fortieth birthday, and the old couple that have just arrived . . . let’s just say their days are numbered.
My review:
The House on Cold Hill, which I read years ago, was a fun, entertaining read [read my review here] so I was looking forward to reading the sequel, The Secret of Cold Hill, and kept it until Halloween time. I don’t read a huge amount of haunted house stories like this but when I do, I often think I should read more.
Firstly, like the first in the series, this is not a book that will terrify you. It does have some eerie bits and there’s a spooky undercurrent running throughout which I loved, but more than anything it’s an enjoyable read with some great characters – those neighbours! There are plenty of witty lines and humorous moments amongst the creeping worry for everyone living on the new housing estate that they may now be trapped somewhere they don’t want to be…
As is to be expected, it does at times feel like ‘more of the same’ as the first since we’re returning to the site of the same house as in the first, and we know what to expect from the basic narrative. However, The Secret of Cold Hill does have extra elements added to the story which makes it a more in-depth, surprising read than the first novel.
I enjoyed this novel from start to finish – it wasn’t anything particularly new but that’s not a bad thing, because I knew what I wanted from this book and it lived up to it! It’s an entertaining, fun read.