I wanted to give this book a higher score, but I really couldn't justify it to myself. I would have given it 3.5 stars, but Amazon, Goodreads, and others force me to round up or down; I chose down. To a degree, there is nothing wrong with the book but then again, it's a tad predictable, the characters are a little bland, and the main idea of a ghost getting revenge on humans is not overly unique. At the same time, I finished the book in just a few days, so I had to enjoy it to some degree.

Pel Minton is a young American, working various jobs as she travels across Europe. She's helping on an archeology dig at a graveyard that is quickly falling into the ocean due to erosion on the nearby cliffs. This graveyard though contains a mausoleum that serves as a prison for an evil soul and his equally dead team of Battle Men. And as the graveyard falls into the ocean so too do the safeguards holding that ghosts prisoner. At that point, mayhem ensues.

So in addition to the issues that I mentioned above, one additional thing that frustrated me was the dumb decisions the character kept making. Something where characters make the stupid choice that normally would never be taken but is made this time solely because it advances the story. For example, the evil soul announces that he's going to possess a main character then take Pel as his wife. Since the plan is now announced to everyone, Pel can simply run away and the evil plan is thwarted; instead she stays behind and ends up in danger. The frustrating thing was that almost every stupid decision made had an easy solution to avoid the stupidity. In total, it came across to me as lazy writing. Now I don't want to rip on the book too much because I still did enjoy it. I finished the book in a few days which lately has been a good pace for me. Plus, I still have another four books by Clark in my to-be-read stack. I guess I'll just have to say that you shouldn't start reading Simon Clark's books with GHOST MONSTER. ( )

Set in the UK, the novel centers around a mausoleum housing a mural containing the soul/spirit of an incredibly evil man from the 18th century. Since Justice Murrain’s death, his ancestors have been protecting the mural to prevent Murrain’s spirit and those of his insane followers from breaking loose. Nature is conspiring against them, however, as the land surrounding it is in danger of falling into the sea. As the land continues to erode, slowly Justice Murrain and his followers begin to break free and take possession of residents of the area and wreak havoc in a very violent way. It is up to Jack Murrain and his grandfather, along with a couple of members of the excavation team to stop Justice Murrain before they possess the entire town.

For the most part, I enjoyed this novel. The characterization was pretty strong. The plot was logical and the story had a good flow. There were some trouble spots, however. Most striking was that certain parts of the story seemed unoriginal and very much like other stories I have read. Specifically, I’m referring to the montage of when the author would give these little slices of Murrain’s followers doing damage to the town. It felt as if I had read similar passages dozens of times in other novels. That was the only thing that really bothered me, but it bothered me quite a bit. So, I generally enjoyed the novel and would recommend it, but it failed to hit the mark as a result.

Carl Alves - author of Battle of the Soul ( )

The Ghost Monster is the nickname the kids of a small English town have given to a mosaic of a creepy man in a mausoleum in an old cliff-side graveyard. The mosaic is a legend among the town, and an elderly man who is a descendent of the man in the picture swears that the pictures houses the soul of that terrible, evil man, and that it must be maintained and kept in perfect condition at all cost.

The problem? Coast erosion is eating away at the cliff at a rapid pace, so fast that the mausoleum will tumble into the sea in the matter of days. No one believes the crazy old man and his wild stories about evil spirits, but strange things have been happening in the town, and things only get darker and bloodier with every piece of soil that falls away from that graveyard.

I'll admit I went into this with a fair amount of reservation. It's not that I haven't read good books in the leisure horror compendium, but more often than not that are quite bad. This one isn't terrible and it's not poorly-written, so I guess that makes it better than average, right? I'm not wowed by it, but it did suck me in while reading it. I kind of hated one of the subplots involving two brothers and their crazy mother, but I really liked the main character and that helped speed the book along.

I probably won't be recommending this to anyone, but overall I'd say I enjoyed the ride. ( )

Ghost Monster shows a town that is slowly being eroded by natural causes, and an archeological team trying to preserve what artifacts they can find before the town is eventually swallowed up by the sea. However, a more pressing matter is soon made evident, and it needs to be kept sealed away. A mosaic called the Ghost Monster has kept the spirit of an ancient madman concealed ever since he died years ago, and the erosion is allowing him to come back to life. Forced to keep him sealed away, the owners of the mosaic and the archeologists must find a way to do that and to also fight the powers of nature that are slowly withering the town day by day.

This is another great addition to the works of Simon Clark. Not my favorite of his, but definitely good enough to satisfy the needs of the horror or Clark fan. A must have for either of those two groups. ( )

A decent novel from Leisure Horror. The plot follows Pel Minton, an American ex-pat in Crowdale, England, working on an archaelogical dig at the local, cliffside cemetery, as the dig team races against time to recover what they can before the ocean watches it all away. Local Jacob Murrain is concerned about the team removing the "ghost monster" mosaic that holds the spirit of his infamous ancestor, Justice Murrain, and his gang of criminally insane spirits beneath the family mausoleum.

The spirits begin to break free, and Jacob, his grandson Jack, and a growing assortment of believers must put them back. The action proceeds steadily, and Clark does a nice job establishing the setting. It's not a "must read" novel, but it's certainly entertaining. ( )