There's No Such Thing as Ghosts, Right?

There's no such thing as ghosts, right? Try telling that to Lilian Chesterfield, her associate Dave, and Captain Moses Akinyemi, a retired military medic. These are the central characters in The House at Phantom Park by Graham Masterton. You may as well add Alex Fowler to that list because, in this particular story, he's the first to encounter the spirits inhabiting St. Philomena's, an abandoned hospital that is soon to be turned into luxury apartments.

Alex's encounter with the spirits leaves him in excruciating pain that seems to have no end. Not even medications and an induced coma can keep him from giving voice to the pain. Amongst his howls, groans, and tormented screams, he keeps asking for Captain Akinyemi, a man he's never met but someone he seems to know very well. When Moses arrives, we learn that Alex claims to be a Corporal Terrence Simons, a man Moses treated in Afghanistan, but Moses insists he's never met the man before in his life.

Meanwhile, back at St. Philomena's, enter Charlene"Charlie" Thorndyke, Alex's replacement, who, while making her rounds of the abandoned hospital, also has an encounter with the spirits that leaves her in a statement of rigidity, as if she'd been carved from stone. At the hospital, she also asks for Moses, although she uses the name Mingus, a nickname he had while serving in Afghanistan. The mystery only deepens when Alex and Charlie die, but not before passing on their afflictions to their caregivers. What is the connection between the retired army medic, these two young surveyors, and the abandoned hospital? Moses intends to find out and pays a visit to St. Philomena's, where he encounters Lilian and David, who are being tormented by all the usual haunted house trappings -- slamming doors, moans, groan, and whispers. David is convinced te place is haunted, and Lilian believes steadfastly that the events are being caused by locals who are against St. Philomena's being turned into luxury apartments. Together they set out to solve the mystery of St. Philomena's.

The House at Phantom Park contains all the trappings of a typical haunted house tale, but Masterton takes it several steps further, creating a hellscape for the tortured spirits inhabiting the hospital that's rather heartbreaking. The characters, for the most part, are likeable enough, although Lilian was getting on my every last nerve, which is a shame, as she in the centralmost character, and she also happens to be the least believable of the entire cast. Masterton maintains an steady pace with the narrative, with only the occasional hiccup, and by that I mean there's some needlessly repetitious lines and statements that are close enough together as to be noticeable, which can sometimes cause a distraction. And while I'm assuming Masteron uses it to establish setting/timeframe for the story, all the references to Covid come across as a heavy-handed means of doing so, especially since Covid has nothing to do with the story itself. At the first mention, you shrug and think, Okay, so this is present day, more or less, but when it's mentioned again and again, the reader is left waiting to see how it's going to tie in to the story, and it never does. However, these few speedbumps, while noticeable at the time, weren't enough to pull me out of the story.

All in all, I enjoyed Graham Masterton's The House at Phantom Park, and I would recommend it if you're looking for a haunted house tale with a twist. Rating: 4 stars out of 5.