That may all sound more or less like the opening of a typical haunted house story but Burnt Offerings is something else, and its horror is a more subtle and insidious thing. However, the house is a dream-come-true for his wife and any negative reaction to the oddness of the Allardyces’ condition is clearly overshadowed by her desire to live a lifestyle she has only ever read about in the style magazines and covets almost beyond anything else. Ben’s scepticism is won over, at least partially, and they up sticks and move to the house with son David and Ben’s Aunt Elizabeth in tow, the promise being that Marian will deal with all of Mrs. To Marian, it all seems so straightforward, although Ben is unconvinced. They won’t be aware of her at all they won’t even see her.

When the Rolfes arrive to view the property, the custodians Roz Allardyce and her wheelchair-bound brother assure them that their mother never leaves her room and needs just three meals a day. And of course it is all too good to be true: the single condition attached to the family’s tenancy of the old house for the summer, aside from generally acting as caretakers of the place, is that they also need to look after the aged Mrs. Her innate acquisitiveness compels her to fall in love with the house from almost as soon as she’s walked through the front door.

But Marian feels that fate, for once, is smiling on her. Marian’s aspirations for higher standards of more genteel living are contained and constrained by the size of the apartment and their means, and w hen the opportunity presents itself for them to rent a country mansion in Long Island filled with antiques for what seems a meagre asking price, it all seems too good to be true. Naturally, such originality proceeds from the fact it’s not a haunted house tale in the traditional vein.īen and Marian Rolfe yearn for an escape from the oppressive, boxed-in nature of their Brooklyn apartment. It’s certainly original and, in places, utterly chilling. That’s quite a claim, but I’d say it’s just about accurate. Originally published in 1973 and adapted three years later for a film in the US, Burnt Offerings is described by Valancourt Books, the publisher of this new edition, as “one of the most original and scariest haunted house novels ever written”.

Ashes by Philip Hemplow