The Lingering

A troubled couple—Jack Gardiner, a former police officer, and his wife, Ali, a psychiatric nurse—are determined to save their marriage by joining Scotland’s Rosalind House Community Project, a spiritual commune that once housed a mental institution, in this eerie supernatural thriller from Holliday (the Banktoun trilogy). From the outset it appears that Jack has done something so horrible that if anyone found out, he and Ali would be banished from Rosalind House. Jack and Ali’s presence disturbs the spiritual community’s tranquility, while each of them starts to see patients from the institution’s past in their visions and dreams. As Jack’s transgressions are slowly revealed, their unsettling nature—and even more evil cause—become evident. Meanwhile, Angela Fairley, another Rosalind House guest, tries to monitor the energies in Jack and Ali’s room. Using cameras and meters to measure electronic disturbances, she hopes to discover evidence of ghosts. After Angela begins to suspect Jack and Ali have something to hide, sinister events ensue. Readers will find this contemporary gothic tale hard to put down. [em]Agent: Philip Patterson, Marjacq Scripts (U.K.). (May) [/em]