Atmospheric and dark, where science and the supernatural meet with nerve shredding results! A new take on the haunted house mysteries.

Absolutely fascinating! I will be writing more. I am working my way slowly through this mesmerizing book. I highly recommend it! Thank you #EndeavorMedia and #Richard Easter!

Review: THE GENERAL THEORY OF HAUNTING by Richard Easter

An admirable novel indeed, THE GENERAL THEORY OF HAUNTING has taken its place on my metaphorical bookshelf with Garth Stein 's A SUDDEN LIGHT and John Harwood's THE GHOST WRITER. I devoured this novel, even as it planted roots in my memory and consciousness. A most exquisite rendering, it defies my ability to describe.

Siblings who own the London publishing house founded by their late parents decide to celebrate the company's 18th anniversary by treating their four employees to an end-of-year house party; but no accommodations are available. Except, rather suddenly, comes an unexpected offer, from an unknown locale: Marryman House, in the "wilds" of Devon. Available Dec. 29-Jan. 2, the secluded upper-class establishment should be a joyful party spot: but instead it immediately morphs into a hotbed of rivalries, grief, hatred, revealed secrets. Snowed in, "seeing things," hearing unidentifiable sounds, in an extraordinarily constructed building, the "party" becomes a pressure cooker. Marryman House in Devon is quite literally a building unique in design and execution, a home constructed in less than a snowy year in 1810; a building with an incredible, a visionary, purpose. THE GENERAL THEORY OF HAUNTING will inspire readers to rethink everything they know about classical physics, quantum mechanics, metaphysics, and relativity.

I received an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very creepy read. I may have slept with the light on for a night or 2 because of it. It starts out as your typical haunted house story, a giant estate in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of a snow storm, but it quickly morphs into something else entirely. Each character has their own back story, some scandalous, some tragic, and some more developed than others . The events take place over the Christmas holidays, to celebrate the new year and the company's 18th anniversary. Things get weirder and weirder as the clock ticks down to New Years and I'd advise to start paying attention to the little details.
One thing I did notice, and it may have already been sorted out in a different copy, but on the entries marked Dec 31, the times that are supposed to be in the AM are actually marked as PM in error....unless I missed something.
I really enjoyed it and I would recommend it to those who like a bit of a scare. I would definitely love to read this author again

A good ghost story. There could have been some more character development but it was an entertaining reading.
Many thanks to Endeavour Press and Netgalley

I really enjoyed this one. The General Theory of Haunting is a new take on a traditional haunted house story. Partially set in the 1800s and in 2018, you follow a group of main characters as they navigate Marryman Hall in December 2018. While on a company retreat a group of fellow employees begin to realize there may be more to the Hall than they originally thought. The butler, Mr. Boulder, insists that the Hall is not haunted (because of course not), and is quick to explain away any suspicious noises they may hear in the night.

The setting bounces between present day (December 2018) and December 1810 as the Hall was first being built.

Definitely not the scariest or creepiest ghost story I've ever read, but it had enough of a spooky atmosphere to it that I found myself wanting to know what would happen next and I was pleasantly surprised.

The best ghost stories are not what you expect.  The General Theory of Haunting is so much more than your average tale of gothic mystery.   Yes, you get your isolated manor house, cut off from the outside world. You are told the inevitable - the house is not haunted - the strange sounds you hear are pipes and the house settling.

After Lord Francis Marryman’s wife died in 1809, he was beset with a desire - to construct a physical means of reuniting with his beloved wife.  The result of his work, this unusual house in the middle of nowhere where the staff of K&K Publishing is to stay for the New Year’s holiday.

The six who arrive are initially charmed, but become more disturbed as the long weekend progresses.  Cut off from the world, in the claustrophobic atmosphere of a house filled with echoing footsteps and whispers, the troop feel their secrets pressing in.  They have the opportunity to solve the puzzle of a lifetime, but doing so may lead to their ultimate destruction.

The General Theory of Haunting is an excellent book. I liked how the “Haunting” was ultimately handled.  I did have one bone to pick and it is a big one - the way tricyclic antidepressants were portrayed.  Not enough research was done.  Ultimately the details put out about tricyclics were complete nonsense.  Based on the descriptions in the text, it sounded like the author was confusing tricyclics with benzodiazepines.The main reason I’m harping on this is that some people may choose to take their medication differently based on false/outdated info in the book.

Without that big problem I would give the novel a 5, but I think my concern is serious enough to downgrade The General Theory of Haunting to a 4.

4 / 5

I received a copy of The General Theory of Haunting from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

— Crittermom

A typical ghost story with little character development

K&K Publishing reserve Marryman Hall as a last resort for a New Years Eve party, but as the snow draws in only 6 colleagues make it to the house. The oddly designed house is beautiful but it seems to hold a sinister purpose; there’s echoing footsteps in the hallways, strange figures in the dark and not everything is at it appears.

The General Theory of Haunting is at heart a traditional ghost story, however it does have a nice scientific twist that brings something new to the table. The story itself does bury itself in the usual haunted house tropes which it does tend to self-reference but doesn’t really do anything about. The characters all seem to have very similar ways of dealing with fear – they all don’t want to look at what is hiding in the darkness as that would make it a reality. Whereas this is quite a sensible response, the scenes were written so similarly it became hard to distinguish between the characters in these moments. The use of flash-backs to Francis Marryman building the Hall are used well and the narrative technique of ending a chapter in the present with a phrase and then mirroring it in the start of the flash-back chapter was a nice touch.

Only having 7 characters really added to the claustrophobic air and should have given a nice opportunity for character development and backstory exposition. However, whilst Anne and Lucy are very well rounded characters with interesting motives and backgrounds, the others seemed to blend into the background. Paula, Gregg and Dan in particular just seemed a prop to the more interesting character in their pair. This may be because this book is part of the ‘Snow Trilogy’ – a trilogy with standalone stories that are all tenuously linked in some way. The author, Richard Easter explains that ‘minor characters in one book become major protagonists in another’ which may explain why this is the case but for a book that is stand-alone in it’s own right and with so few actual characters it seems a bit of a shame.

The plot itself is also quite obvious, the blurb synopsis and the first few chapters dispelled any minor twists throughout the first ¾ of the book. The ending did have a nice twist but the book hinted a bit too strongly at it way before the reveal which ruined the surprise.

Although I don’t usually mention formatting in ARC reviews, this book is already out and on sale for the Kindle on Amazon and so I must say that the copy I received was badly formatted. There were a lot of missing spaces, bad paragraph breaks and odd fonts. This may have been corrected for the for-sale copy but a few Amazon reviews hint that it hasn’t. It is a shame to see this as it did hinder my enjoyment as a reader and it would be an easy thing to fix.

Overall The General Theory of Haunting is a nice traditional ghost story that brings something new to the table with a few great characters. However, the other characters being under-developed and its willingness to give its secrets and twists away too easily let it down. Thank you to NetGalley and Endeavour Press for giving me a copy of The General Theory of Haunting in exchange for an honest review.