Naomi's Room
 First edition | |
| Author | Jonathan Aycliffe |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
Publication date | 21 Nov 1991 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 172 |
| ISBN | 0-246-13926-9 |
Naomi's Room is a 1991 horror novel by English author Jonathan Aycliffe, described by the Newcastle Evening Chronicle as being "among the finest of English ghost stories".[1] It has been optioned for film in Hollywood.[2]
Plot introduction
Pembroke College academic Charles Hillenbrand looks back on his life and his marriage to Laura, who gave up her job at the Fitzwilliam Museum on the birth of their daughter Naomi. On Christmas Eve 1970, Charles took his four-year-old daughter on a shopping trip from Cambridge to London by train. Whilst in Hamleys, Naomi disappears, and days later her mutilated body is discovered in Spitalfields. But Naomi does not rest in peace and Charles and Laura find themselves haunted by her presence as other murders follow. First the policeman leading the investigation is found with his throat cut in the crypt of a church near Brick Lane, then a press photographer who had shown Charles disturbing images in the photos he had taken is murdered, parts of his body found strewn along a Spitalfields alley...
Reception
- "A Chilling story which gives the lie to any notion that supernatural horror is remotely therapeutic. Aycliffe has a fine touch." The Independent[1]
- "A powerful psychological ghost story...the residual spirit of Jack the Ripper complicates matters and initially seems to intrude too much on the core story, but Aycliffe eventually resolves things quite neatly."[3]