Haunted by the Past, by Simon R. Green
Ishmael Jones, 011
★★★★☆
288 Pages
1st person, single character POV
Themes: murder, science fiction, aliens, secret organisations, haunted house
Triggers: mentions of gore, violence and supernatural beings, historic child abuse, mentions of historic drug use, satanism and devil worship
Genre: Contemporary, Murder Mystery, Science Fiction, Crime
Haunted by the Past is the eleventh book in the Ishmael Jones series and feels like more of a standalone than the other books in the series. This one doesn't mention or even hint at the events of the previous book, which was closely linked and followed along from the previous few books. This one doesn't recognise the other survivor of the alien crash or mention what the Organisation really does – both of which were major factors of the previous book.
Again, we have Ishmael and Penny investigating something for the Organisation, this time it's the sudden disappearance of a low-level agent who attended a historic society conference – he checked into the hotel, got his key and two of his three bags of luggage, made his way upstairs but never made it to his room and never returned to collect his third bag of luggage.
The mystery of the man's disappearance is interesting enough, but he disappears from an old house in a quaint little village that is full of mysterious stories and tall tales of ghosts and monsters. Then, once everyone gathers together while Ishmael and Penny investigate, another person mysteriously goes missing, which results in a shocking twist that proves all men have the capacity to become monsters, and some men create the worst monsters themselves.
The cast are small but interesting:
Arthur and Marion Glenbury – husband and wife, owners of the house
Ellen – their daughter
Catherine Voss – respected local historian and an aunt to Arthur
Wendy Goldsmith – member of Ravensbrook Historical Society
Lucas Carr – employed by the Organisation, member of Ravensbrook Historical Society, missing presumed dead
With tales of the house 'eating' people, creatures that roam the halls and crawl rather than walk, and a long-standing history of people going missing, connections to the disappearance of a Lord who was about to oppose the King and a gathering of party-goers who were never there, there's no end to the stories that surround the Hall.
While the concept of another haunted house, locked-house mystery was well done and original despite having used the concept multiple times throughout the series, I did find that there were two big storylines repeated from previous books, almost word for word, and there were multiple other concepts and phrases repeated from previous books. Specifically, the story of being afraid of the dark, of hearing footsteps that only ended up being delayed echoes throughout an old house. Those stories were told in the House on Widow's Hill and Into the Thinnest Air.
Here, nearly all the suspects bare one and the missing man are related to each other, so while everyone has a motive for the disappearances and a reason to make the spooky stories seam rooted in reality, Ishmael has to work out who has the most powerful motive amongst them, as well as the means and opportunity. This is a story less about clues and more about fitting the pieces together, like a jigsaw where all the pieces are the same size and shape but they only form the right picture when put into the proper order.
It was an interesting story, with a few small twists, but mostly it was about figuring out what was fact amongst the historical fiction of ghosts, monsters and evil-doers that is so deeply rooted I the history of the Glenbury Hall. I liked the pacing and the attention to detail, how even small things had a big significance, and although I had my theory about who did it early on, the confirmation didn't come until the second half when all the pieces slotted together. Until then, everyone seemed likely to have a reason to tamper with the known facts.
While this doesn't read like a final book in the series, the fact it doesn't mention the recent revelations about the Organisation and Ishmael's past suggest that the series could continue in an almost-standalone capacity, where every book continues his work as an agent without referring to those events that would have closed the series. If there are more, I'll probably read them. I do love a good mystery where I'm never quite sure who to trust.