This review first appeared on scifiandscary.com

‘The Lingering’ is a taut, well written and thoroughly enjoyable blend of ghost story and mystery. It never reaches the terrifying heights of something like Susan Hill’s classic ‘The Woman in Black’, but it is satisfyingly creepy and full of unsettling imagery and ideas.
Like many ghost stories it has an isolated setting, in this case a new age retreat, Rosalind House, in the Cambridgeshire countryside. Naturally the building has a macabre past, having previously been a mental asylum where unspeakable things happened. On top of that the land it is built on was used for witch trials in centuries past. Throw in the fact that the couple the story focuses around (Jack and Ali) have dark secrets of their own, and everything is set up for a nicely horrifying tale.
One of the strengths of SJI Holliday’s book is how well plotted and paced it is. It starts with the couple arriving at the retreat and tensions are quickly revealed, between Jack and Ali and between the pair and the other residents of Rosalind House. Holliday populates the book with a small but believable cast of supporting characters including Smeaton, the retreat’s director, and Angela, a hippy/ghost hunter. The story is laid out in alternating chapters told from different characters’ points of view, a technique which seems hugely popular at the moment and can grate, but works well here. The presence of credible characters makes the fantastic elements of the plot easier to take and I found myself wrapped up in the plot, even thought there isn’t an obvious protagonist to root for.
It’s clear from the start that there are supernatural shenanigans at Rosalind House, and Holliday handles them well, teasing out the details with a series of ghostly sightings and the gradual reveal of past crimes. Running alongside this we slowly learn the secrets of Jack and Ali’s past. These are, if anything, even more shocking than Rosalind House’s back story, and evidence that Holliday has an joyously dark imagination.
Added to that we have the fact that the story takes an unexpected and creative turn half way through, setting things up nicely for a conclusion that is both compelling and emotionally satisfying. ‘The Lingering’ not be a classic of the genre, but it is a solidly entertaining entry that I think anyone with a fondness for ghost stories will enjoy. The mystery elements are well handled and the slow reveal is brilliantly tantalising. Before I’d even finished it I’d bought four more of Holliday’s books and I’m very much looking forward to reading them (Disclaimer: I have TERRIBLE impulse control when it comes to buying books).
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The Lingering has all the right pieces but didn't deliver on its promise.

The setting is a Gothic dream. We're in an old asylum, on the outskirts of a small village with a history of witchcraft. The asylum is now a commune of sorts, inhabited by people escaping mysterious pasts.

But we never delve beneath the surface.

The people who live in this asylum-turned-housing project have no interest in the place. They live in their little area, in their assigned rooms. They don't want to know the asylum's history. They don't explore the uninhabited wing, which still contains all the old medical equipment and patient files. Their absolute lack of curiosity drove me nuts.

Pacing is slow. In fact, very little actually happens. We could condense it all to about 75 pages.

The characters aren't developed and consequently don't feel real. We never learn much about most of the inhabitants. The few characters with starring roles are one-dimensional.

Nothing surprised me. The big reveal is obvious from early on.

But the cover is fantastic, so there's that. ( )

A modern gothic and twist on the unreliable narrator format about a married couple haunted by their past.

Not a long read, but the pace is mostly chilly and disquieting rather than true horror, with an especially shocking twist near the end. Well-plotted--I knew it wasn't going to end well and the characters weren't as they appeared, but the twists along the way were unexpected. Told in alternating perspectives of the couple and a woman who rightly sniffs out that there's more to the new arrivals than meets the eye.

English setting and a distinctly English vibe and tone...which is a distinguishing characteristic versus the tide of Scandinavian ghost stories popular of late.

Recommended for gothic, ghost story fans. ( )

When a married couple decide to move to a commune in the Fens to get away from it all, a place known for its history of witches, all is not as it seems.

This book has glowing reviews but I’m afraid I was disappointed by it. I love a good ghost story but sadly this one didn’t engage me and I didn’t really care for any of the characters, the main two being fairly unlikeable.

I think it’s beautifully written and it is definitely a sinister tale. However, I found it quite drawn out and too much of a slow burner. It certainly lives up to its title - ‘lingering’. I didn’t find it scary, it was more disturbing and weird than creepy. I so wanted to enjoy it but, sadly, it’s just not my cup of tea. ( )

This is my first SJI Holliday book but I seem to have most of her back catalogue waiting for me. Based on The Lingering I feel sure I will like them.

Ali and Jack Gardiner, at the start of the book, arrive at a Fenland commune. We know they are running from something but we don't know what. They meet Smeaton, the man in charge of the commune, and various other residents, including Angela, a young and slightly naive woman with an interest in the supernatural. Angela tries to befriend Ali, but is also wary of her.

The commune has a chequered and sinister past. In the 1500s it was linked to witches and then, in the much more recent past, it had been an asylum. As is often the case, the treatments there were barbaric and led to something happening that comes back, quite literally, to haunt Ali. The local villagers are very suspicious of the newcomers, Ali and Jack, and also of the commune, although the villagers can't see that they themselves are a closed community too in their own way.

From the very beginning of this book we start to get a feeling about Ali and Jack, that maybe they're not all they seem to be. I found them to be those characters I love to hate: complex, cunning, yet so very interesting. All the characters are fascinating, in fact, and they make up a whole cast that enthralled me.

I know many reviewers have been genuinely scared by the contents of The Lingering. I wasn't but then nothing has ever made me think ghosts exist. I'm far more scared of what human beings are capable of and those aspects of the story chilled me far more than the ghostly aspects. However, despite my scepticism where ghosts are concerned, those sections were perfectly pitched so that they came across as completely authentic.

The Lingering is a compulsive and intense read, one which I found absolutely compelling. The house's past, Ali and Jack's past, Angela's supernatural investigations, all come together to make this a really inspired story. I love what the author has achieved here, how she has weaved the strands together. It's a fabulous read. ( )