The Man in the Picture: A Ghost Story

Though not as outright frightening as WOMAN IN BLACK, still effective and highly literate. Once again, Hill chooses the short novel to tell this ghost story, which is reminiscent of such masters as Poe and Lovecraft.The Man in the Picture

What a great little book. Not at all "frightening" the way the jacket misleads, but it's a little creepy - in the way a Twilight Zone show would be. Original !

The story is much smoother than Poe, but not unlike one of his plots. Intriguing, and extremely well written--the flow of the prose is skillfully simple. Definitely worth reading.

Susan Hill's latest novella recalls the famous Edwardian ghost stories of M. R. James and the Benson brothers as much as her famous previous short novel THE WOMAN IN BLACK recalled the Victorian ghost stories of Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Henry James and John Meade Falkner. We have here many of the more familiar tropes of M. R. James's ghost stories--tales within tales, multiple narrators, bachelor antiquarians in rooms at Oxbridge, and a woman possessed by a burning revenge--and in terms of atmosphere Hill is pretty faultless. But the novella leaves too much unclear in its telling. Although you want a certain amount of mystery preserved at the end of a ghost story, there's just too much muddled at the end of this to really get the effects Hill strives for--so while most of the story is quite a page turner, the final narrative section leaves you a bit unsatisfied.

I was intrigued by the premise of the story. When I started the book, I knew it was one of those books you just can't put down, nor do you want to. It is similar to a modern Poe story and I hope you agree, one that you would want to recommend to friends and read again!