Product Description

Harrow House Series, Book 1 -- There are places that hold in the traces of evil, houses that become legendary for the mysteries and secrets within their walls. Harrow is one such house. Psychic manifestations, poltergeist activity, hallucinations, and other residue of terror have all been documented in Harrow. It has been called Nightmare House. It is a nest for the restless spirits of the dead. When Ethan Gravesend arrives to inherit Nightmare House, he does not suspect the horror that awaits him -- the nightmare of the woman trapped within the walls of the house, or the endless crying of an unseen child.

Unabridged dramatic reading by Michael Taylor of Books In Motion. 5.25 hours of listening.

5 CDs in a durable plastic Books In Motion "Commuter CaseTM"

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #289731 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 340 pages

From Publishers Weekly
An uncharacteristic period ghost story brings the Harrow haunted house trilogy to an apprehensive conclusion or beginning. In Mischief (2000) and The Infinite (2001), Clegg dropped portentous hints of past misdeeds and occult experiments that amplified the evil influence of Harrow, a sprawling Hudson River estate turned into a boys' prep school. The events of this novel, a prequel to the previous two books, don't so much explain as anticipate Harrow's later ghostly manifestations. In 1926, Ethan Gravesend inherits the estate from his eccentric paternal grandfather, who built the mansion on supposedly cursed land. Almost immediately, he witnesses eerie apparitions that emanate from Harrow's shadowy halls and gloomy grounds. In the company of housekeeper and love interest Maggie Barrow, Ethan stumbles upon a boarded-up room and a proverbial skeleton in the family closet that serves as lodestone for the formidable supernatural forces that pulse through the dwelling. Clegg milks each of the gothic set pieces premature burial, mesmerism, exorcism, as well as the inevitable specters for maximum spooky effect, but ultimately depends on a lengthy digression by the well-informed local constable to put them all together for Ethan's benefit. While he offers no ideas here that haven't already been explored by the weird fiction masters cited in his acknowledgments, Clegg's modern sensibility brings out the luster in some of the genre's well-used furniture and shows that tales in the classic horror tradition can still entertain.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

The Sense of Place, Time and Reality
The novel Nightmare House succeeded for me (and I hope for you too) on many levels. I would like to share with you two of them.
First, Setting: The reader is immediately and constantly aware of time and place. Ethan's travels to Harrow through the villages and along the road. The grand tour of Harrow, through its many levels, seen and unseen. The reminders that this was a more simple time - gas lights, unpaved roads, a constable that arrived on bike.
Second, Realism: Now, that may sound funny when reviewing a horror novel, but I'll have to say that when I read this novel, I did not once say to myself, "No way - that makes no sense at all." The story flowed well and made sense. I felt as though I could put myself in Ethan's place and experience it this in the "real" world and not be surprised. Life is full of mysteries and the answers to what happens in the infinite have been faith-based and if you believe in good, you must also believe in evil. The afterlife has never been defined, only interpreted. Ethan's experiences in the Nightmare House kept me glued to the story and my fingers turning the pages.

A great audio of a great book.
The year is 1926, and Ethan Gravesend has just inherited Harrow House -- the Watch Point, New York, home of his grandfather Justin Gravesend (who tells the story of his own early years in The Necromancer). Called Nightmare House by the local newspapers because of the events that have taken place under its roof, it is also said that every stone, every piece of glass, of this English-style manor castle was chosen specifically by Justin with full knowledge of its history and possible black-magical effects.

"Harrow, you belong to me," Ethan proclaims upon his arrival. "But I was to learn," the elder Ethan notes in the telling of this story from the present day, "that this house belonged to no man." However, Ethan feels as if he has come home at last. He used to visit Harrow in his youth, but his parents kept him away except for those rare visits, though he would dream of it at night.

Newly single, Ethan is prepared to settle in to his newly acquired wealth and status -- until the dead woman is discovered in the secret walled-off room. Accompanied by chief of police Pocket and local boy Alf, other frightening events are to come (during what the elder Ethan calls a "night of mystery") that will cause him to wonder what exactly his grandfather has let loose in Harrow. But these events will pale in comparison to the new information he discovers about his family.

Author Douglas Clegg has said that Nightmare House is his version of the "quiet ghost story" -- in fact, each Harrow novel reflects a favored literary style of his. Clegg leaps around from first-person to third-person, past to present, with confidence, and he never misses a step. Reader Michael Taylor (from Books in Motion, the audio publisher who produced this edition) follows along gamely. Taylor's friendly baritone eases the listener into the strange happenings like a kindly uncle telling a spooky story before the fire. He also shows a surprising facility with voices that I would have thought out of his range. I especially enjoyed Taylor's characterization of Pocket; Clegg gives Pocket a lot of space to maneuver as a supporting character, even allowing him to tell his own side of the story, and Taylor gives him a dose of extra personality.

My first Harrow novel was through 2005's The Abandoned, which I did not enjoy for various reasons, but one of those may have been my lack of knowledge regarding the house and its background. (Clegg says you can read the series in any order, but that one may be the exception.) Nightmare House filled me in wonderfully, and I may have to give the other another try. This first novel of Harrow House and its surrounding history and happenings was wholly satisfying, and it has made me look forward to reading the other entries in the series. In fact, as soon as I finished listening to it, I picked up The Necromancer and read it in two sittings. These have reaffirmed my confidence both in Clegg and in Harrow, and now I am eager to acquire a copies of the other Harrow stories. And if they are also released on audio of this quality, that will be even better.

Truly Captivating
This is one of those novels that I just didn't want to put down and wished would never end. Douglas Clegg is truly a master of horror fiction. He knows how to strike the chords of terror within the human mind without the crutches of butchery and gore. His eloquent writing style captivates the senses in such a way you can almost feel, see, hear and taste his every word. Whether this makes any sense at all, I can best describe this novel as terrifyingly beautiful and that I was beautifully terrified.