The Ghost Hunters by Neil Spring

In the year 1926, Sarah Grey returns to London jobless and in need of money to support her elderly mother. Harry Price is England’s most infamous ghost hunter in need of an assistant able to put up with his equal parts brilliance and manipulative nature. The infamous Borley Rectory will push this working relationship to the limit in frightening and heartbreaking ways.

Part of The Ghost Hunters’ charm is just how quickly you realise that Spring clearly cares about these characters deeply and how much research he must have done. Writing about them in such a way that you truly feel as though you’re tapping into their innermost thoughts and desires, he successfully blurs the line between reality and fiction in a way that makes both Harry, an actual historical figure and Sarah his imagined assistant feel as real and authentic as one another.

Now. it’s true to say that it took a while for The Ghost Hunters to hook me, but by the time Harry and Sarah stepped foot inside the supposedly haunted rectory, I couldn’t put the book down. Neil Spring introduces two interesting and complex characters who make it their mission to bring down the fake spiritualists who were using the pain felt by grieving families as a route to great fortune.

Spring’s writing does a good job of subverting your expectations, leaving you guessing throughout if the haunting was real or some elaborate hoax? But what makes this tale so thrilling is the emotional punch that you experience towards the end of the book and how it makes you feel towards Sarah and Harry.

Leaving you guessing about what is real and fake right up until the last moment. I can’t recommend it highly enough. If you’re a fan of spooky tales, gothic fiction or detective stories, then The Ghost Hunters is the perfect book for you.