BOOK REVIEW | READING CHALLENGE

The Woman in Black — by Susan Hill; An Audiobook Review

More than a good ghost story, this is a retelling of terror.

This book is my fourth read and review in Paul Combs’s “Thanks for the Nightmares” option from his Seven Summer Reading Challenges,

I was standing at my kitchen counter putting the finishing touches on a savoury pastry supper, listening to Paapa Essiedu reading The Woman in Black, when my blood turned cold. It was near the story’s end, and I mistakenly assumed that the worst of the scares were over — I was wrong.

My wife was fluttering around, talking about the kid’s rugby, hockey, or maybe the car we are trying to buy, and the slick-as-oil finance guy who kept adding more add-ons to the final financing. All those topics were important to listen to, except the finance guy, a man who would take his 90-year-old mother to Sunday brunch and then make her pay. And tip. But none of those things breached the barrier between my ears and the Bluetooth speaker on the dining table. So, I did the ill-advised; I shushed my wife.

“Ssh!” I hissed as I opened the pantry door and put away the dry goods. “This is freaking creepy! I need to hear what’s happening.”