A Cold Blue Light

As a fan of Masters of Solitude, I looked foreward to reading A Cold Blue Light. Little did I realize that the two books would have nothing in common but the authors. But, I decided to give the book a chance.I am glad I did. This is a superb book, the way science fiction should be written. The book takes a basic premise, the haunted house, and examines it with a blend of philosophy and psychology, incorporating themes from some of the more significant writers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. However, the writers trick us by hiding all of this in a story about people. A lot of the time in Sci Fi the characters are only there to move the story along; the characterizations feel flat. Never the case with Kaye and Godwin; the characers truly live in their writing.Also, the book lacks the bloat that currently runs rampant in the genre; the story is tighly wrapped and easy to complete in a day or two. These authors work hard; their readers don't have to. Rather, you are left to think about their work.I highly recommend this book.

If you only judge a story by its plot, you will probably pan this book for being remarkably similar to Shirley Jackson's 1959 classic "The Haunting of Hill House". Having re-read both fairly recently, this novel by Marvin Kaye and Parke Godwin, the ace writing team that brought you "Masters of Solitude", wins hands down as a horror story. Basic scenario: neurotic young heiress with a troubled past has inherited a spooky, isolated mansion. Previous psychic investigation has revealed no conventional ghosts - just a "constant": a patch of cold, blue light on the floor of the upstairs landing.To investigate further what she might be moving into, she assembles a small team of professional and amateur psychic investigators to stay in the house for the weekend. All are quirky individuals, drawn in great detail. All have their own ways of doing things. Most are skeptical of the methodology of at least one of the others. The human-human interactions are as fascinating as the human-supernatural. Very soon after arrival, strange things start happening. There is much more to the house than the blue light. As events and stresses develop, not just the uneasy alliances between the investigators but their very personalities start to undergo changes.Each undergoes unique experiences which are tailor-made to their own psychological weak spots. As readers, we get a rivetting overview of the true nature of the situation, and can only read on, spellbound and horrified, as the investigators miss opportunities to compare notes and pool experience, and the casualties mount.... Although the horrors are more explicit than in "The Haunting..", they are not schlocky ghost train horrors but remain predominantly psychological/atmospheric. One of the best ghost stories ever written.