Pay the Ghost has been in my TBR for far too long. I am making a concerted effort to address books which I heard about and wanted to read and then (for various reasons) didn't get to at the time.

What I had not realised about Pay the Ghost is that it is a novella - a very swift, but brutal and disturbing read which introduced me to Tim Lebbon. On the basis of what I read here I can be quite sure this will not be the last Tim Lebbon story I will be seeking out.

A father mourns the disappearance of his daughter. Her mother, his wife, is gone - the pair drifted apart as she blamed him for not keeping an eye on the young girl while they were out. But events of the past are soon to be put into shocking new light when the man's wife returns to his home, filthy, emaciated and a shadow of her former self. She knows where their daughter is and is pleading for her husband to help. He is not prepared for what they will encounter.

This would be a good read at Halloween (which actually features in the story). It felt dark, bleak and even the resolution left me unsetlled. It's fantastically written in so far as the emotion and upset which is conveyed seeps through the page to have its dark impact upon the reader.

More of this kind of chiller in my reading would be most welcome.