These are the questions that confront psychic investigator David Ash when he delves into the mysterious events terrorizing the community of Sleath, a small, quaint village hidden away in the Chiltern Hills. In Sleath he will fear for his own sanity as each dark secret is unveiled and terrible malign forces are unleashed. For the full horror will be beyond imagination. SLEATH. Where the dead will walk the streets.Amazon.com ReviewVeteran horror writer James Herbert brings back the protagonist ofHauntedto investigate psychic disturbances in a picturesque village in the Lake District of England. It's an interesting mishmash of a novel--not entirely successful, but enjoyable all the same. Herbert's penchant for gorgeously visceral carnage unfortunately clashes with his equally skilled ability to create a subtle mood of supernatural terror. And he throws way too many ingredients into the stew: family secrets, rape, infanticide, necrophilia, the "Black Arts," a moldering mansion, a sinister yellow fog, drowning children, poltergeist pranks, a haunted painting, a tormented vicar, a neglectful doctor, even an evil knight. Yet, asNecrofile: The Review of Horror Fictionreports, "None of these flaws are fatal. These days, making a classic ghost story work at all--let alone on the scale ofThe Ghosts of Sleath--requires a daunting level of craft, control, and consistency.... Many of the novel's supernatural elements ... evoke the requisite chills."From Publishers WeeklyDavid Ash, the skeptical investigator of supposed psychic phenomenon and the hero of Herbert's chilling ghost story Haunted (1988), returns to grapple with an entire village full of spooks in this disappointing sequel. The rural English town of Sleath seems an unremarkable hamlet, but Ash senses "an atmosphere that's conducive to evil" shortly after being summoned there by the Reverend George Lockwood. He discovers that many of the townsfolk are seeing specters of the recently departed. Herbert's usual skill at developing plot through the experiences of several characters fails him here, as it becomes evident that the residents of Sleath exist only to be terrorized by the increasingly malevolent ghosts. Ash proves little help in making sense of the hauntings, getting so sidetracked in his budding romance with Lockwood's daughter that Herbert has to introduce mysterious Seamus Phelan in the book's latter half to explain what is happening. But Phelan's appearance raises as many questions as it answers, including who he is, why he's so knowledgeable about Sleath's dark heritage and why the town's centuries-old legacy has chosen to manifest itself now. The book's abrupt, inconclusive ending leaves the door open for Ash to return; if he does, Herbert will have to spend part of the next novel tying up ends left loose here.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.