The Secret of Amityville

by Hans Holzer

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Genres: Horror

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Hans Holzer, whose investigations into the paranormal took him to haunted houses and other sites all over the world, wrote more than 140 books on ghosts, the afterlife, witchcraft, extraterrestrial beings, and other phenomena associated with the realm he called “the other side.” Among his famous subjects was the Long Island house that inspired The Amityville Horror book and film adaptations. Holzer studied at the University of Vienna, Austria, and at Columbia University, New York, earning a master’s degree in comparative religion. He taught parapsychology at the New York Institute of Technology. Holzer died in 2009.

Reviews

[Steph · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anyways, this is a fictional account of what happened to make the house at Amityville, from the Amityville Horror fame, cursed or what-have-you.

This story has pirates, a disgraced English Lord, Indians, lost love, betrayal, death, murder, and even a happy ending. Yeah, there really is a happy ending in there somewhere.

I love ghost stories. True or not. And I've read another book by Hans Holzer, Ghosts, and fully enjoyed it. This book wasn't bad. It was a quick and enjoyable read. But at points I felt like there was too much. I would still recommend this to anyone that enjoys a good story about a cursed house.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a fan of horror stories, I was eager to read this. Unfortunately, "Secret of Amityville" is, somehow, even more disappointing than "The Amityville Horror". It was more amusing and quaint than scary, with quite a few punctuation and spelling errors.

[Kevin Lucia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Will be interesting to discuss this whole phenomenon on Horror 101, but this was pretty weak. Not scary, and fictional, but written like nonfiction...

[Shaq · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just. No.