Item: Sweet Heart
Rating: 3.00
Author: camerontrost

by Peter James

Charley has a strange feeling when she sees the idyllic mill house with its cluster of outbuildings, the lake and the swirling mill stream; a powerful sense of recognition, as if she has been there before. Except she knows she hasn't.

After Charley and her husband Tom move into Elmwood Mill, sinister memories of a previous existence start to haunt her. Despite both their attempts to dismiss everything with rational explanations, the feeling turns to certainty as the memories become increasingly vivid and terrifying. Charley is persuaded to undergo hypnosis - but in searching deep into her past, she unwitting opens a Pandora's box of evil ... and now the terror is free.

I don't read many novels because they tend to be short on substance and full of repetition compared to short stories and novellas. This story is no exception. It's rather predictable, and some chapters were supposed to end with a twist, but too much foreshadowing or the lack of originality allows the reader to see them coming. The use of dream sequences and some of the prose is a little tacky too. Nevertheless, I kept reading this book and quite enjoyed it, perhaps because the setting and characters were interesting. For this reason, I can't bring myself to give it fewer than three stars. That said, it has yet again confirmed my admiration for shorter fiction, especially in the genres of horror fiction and ghost stories. Has Peter James written any good short stories?

Sweet Heart

by Peter James

Reviewed by Cameron Trost on Oct 31, 2015

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