The Manor

I love scary stories, and I would go into a haunted house, but I'm taking my friends with me. Love the story line and characters.

If there's a better haunted house story floating around today, I haven't heard about it. Scott Nicholson brings his A-game with The Manor. A widely unusual plot; twists and turns along every room in the manor. Nicholson will succeed in bring you a string of sleepless nights. --Joseph McGee, author of In the Wake of the Night, Phil's Place and Darkness Won't Rest: Phils Place II

I recently went on a Scott Nicholson binge, having learned that he lives in the same area I do in the North Carolina mountains. Though this novel doesn't have as many rural characters as his others, it still strikes that same cord, tapping into mountain folklore for its chills. This isn't his best book, but it's better than most of what's out there. Anna pissed me off because she seemed a little too annoying (I thought Mason deserved a better love interest), but she was the right character to focus on the haunting. I like his use of artists as a spin on the usual haunted house story. I used to date an artist and they are seriously all messed up, so I can see how such a strange blend of egos would create havoc if you threw in a ghost or two. Read all of his books--you won't regret it.

There are two things I really love about Nicholson's books, his characters and his Appalachian settings. I found The Manor to be as fast a read as both The Harvest and The Red Church were, well paced and suspenseful using fully fleshed out characters and lush settings. I felt like I knew Anna and Mason and the artiste-de-general of the Manor's guests, I felt dizzy at the crossing of the bridge and I could smell the loamy woods surrounding the manor. So now gather round this setting with these people, and get ready for a frightening ride. A group of artists are invited to the mountain retreat of Korban Manor, an isolated and rustic place with no electricity, to practice their crafts and attend a party the night of the October blue moon. Among the painters and sculptors and photographers and writers, Anna seems a bit out of place, being a paranormal researcher, invited to Korban Manor to hunt ghosts. Or was she summoned? Anna has the gift of second sight, and an unusual attachment to the strange house. Mason is a sculptor, trying to make his break, and when he gets to Korban Manor his talent seems to explode, his hands flying over the wood as he carves out an image of Ephram Korban. Everybody's talent has taken off, underneath the watchful stare of the portraits that hang in every room of the house and under the withering heat of the constantly lit furnace. Something isn't right here, and the line between the living and the dead is growing thinner and thinner as the blue moon approaches. The guests grow uneasy and suffer from horrid nightmares, and the staff just keeps getting odder and odder. The dead are awake. I don't want to give too much away because Nicholson has a few lovely surprises in store for his readers, having created an old fashioned ghost story with some eerie new twists that sent shivers of delight running down my spine. Using just the right mix of creeping fear and bloody splatters, The Manor is a fast-paced, delightful read that is best savored in the lonesome hours under dim lighting. Enjoy!!

Ephram Korban had been an admirer of art in all forms - literature, painting, photography, music, sculpture, and more. He died in an October on the night of a rare blue moon. Miss Mamie, his last living relative, still abides by Ephram's last wish. The deluxe manor is tucked away in the Blue Ridge mountains and serves as an artists' retreat. The manor is isolated from the rest of the world. It has no electricity and is totally self sufficient. Miss Mamie often chooses an elite group of people to stay in the manor for six weeks. During this time, artists will concentrate on their form of art uninterrupted. Yet even though it all looks serene at first glance, it is anything but. Within the halls of the manor something is feeding off the energies of those in the manor. Something determined to reclaim life at any cost. And the next October blue moon is due. ***** Author Scott Nicholson sends cold chills down the spines of his readers. The dead actually seem to come back to life due to his dark writing talent. This time Nicholson has managed not only to keep me awake reading long into the night, but also to invade my dreams with dark visions. "THE MANOR", in my opinion, is his best novel yet! ***** Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

The North Carolina Arts Council awarded a grant to Mason Jackson to work on his sculpture for six weeks with free room and board at the Korban Manor that once belonged to Ephraim Korban. Parapsychologist Anna Galloway has dreamed of Korban Manor for a long time and now that she is dying, she goes to the place that has haunted her. Anna is amazed that her dream was about an actual place and from her first day on the property she sees ghosts, the shades that Korban controls. At first nobody realize that Korban is neither dead nor alive but lives in the walls and the glass of the home he loved so much. Miss Mamie, who runs the manor, is really Korban's wife Margaret; she remains young due to the power that her husband possesses. Everyone on the property who is not a guest is a ghost for Korban to use as fuel to sustain his existence. On the night of the blue moon, if all goes according to plan, Korban will live once again and only Anna and Mason can stop him if they dare. Fans of Bentley Little and Peter Straub will love this old fashioned ghost story that will scare readers half to death out of fear Korban will turn them next. From the beginning the audience is aware that ghosts roam THE MANOR and the outside property but they don't have a clue what Korban's ultimate goal is or why each room has a fireplace that is always lit or why a picture of Korban that is highly prominent in each room gives the viewer a chill. Sooth Nicholson has written an edgy and frightening ghost story that readers will thoroughly enjoy. Harriet Klausner