Book Review: Naomi's Room by Jonathan Aycliffe

Charles and Laura are a young, happily married couple inhabiting the privileged world of Cambridge academia. Brimming with excitement, Charles sets off with his daughter Naomi on a Christmas Eve shopping trip in London. But, by the end of the day, all Charles and his wife have left are cups of tea and police sympathy. For Naomi, their beautiful, angelic only child, has disappeared. Days later her murdered body is discovered.
But is she dead?
In a howling, bumping story of past and present day hell, Jonathan Aycliffe's haunting psychological masterpiece is guaranteed to make you sink to untold depths of teeth-shaking terror.

This book is absolutely terrifying! It caught my eye on Amazon as there were several references to M.R. James who I am a big fan of.  I decided to give it a go, it is only 158 pages long and I would say that I had finished it in about three and a half hours. The story was one of the most chilling that I have ever read but I just couldn't put it down.
Naomi's Room did remind me of M.R. James's ghost stories. You can imagine the narrator retelling the story round a roaring fire in a desolated house somewhere.
The story is told by Charles, he took his young daughter Naomi shopping on Christmas Eve, he loses her when he turns his back and then her body is discovered on Christmas Day. But if she is dead then how can Charles and his wife see her in their house? How is she appearing in photographs taken after her death and who are the other people standing with her?
Naomi's Room makes for uncomfortable reading in many parts. I read a few reviews which said that they felt that the gruesome details were unnecessary . I've not made my mind up about it but I do think that the book would lose a lot of it's shock appeal if those details were missing. I didn't feel that the author only used shock tactics though. Jonathan Aycliffe creates a sincerely sinister atmosphere from the very beginning. I felt aware that awful events were going to take place but I still wasn't prepared for the final few chapters.
If you like a good ghost story then I highly recommend Naomi's Room.

Dot Scribbles Rating: 5/5