The Crying Child

Rating:
Summary: GOOD BOOK, GOOD AUTHOR!
Review: I'll have to admit out of all Barbara Micheals' books that I have read so this one is the most chilling/scary one I have ever read. When you start reading it. It seems a bit slow at first but gets better because you can almost feel that erie coldness and chill down your spine. It a while to walk off the feeling of uneasiness after reading the book even after I read a second time. I recommend this book to all fans of Barbara Micheals and those that love books that send chills to your bones.

Rating:
Summary: Best of the best
Review: Barbara Michaels is the high priestess of the mystery/ghost story genre, with her restrained spookiness and sense of atmosphere.

The book takes place when a young struggling artist visits her wealthy sister and brother-in-law. Jo's sister Mary just had a third miscarriage, and the loss of her baby is affecting her mentally - she's clinging to the idea of a child out in the woods, who is crying for her and begging for her help. Jo begins to wonder if Mary really is crazy -- but then she hears the crying too.

Jo teams up with her brother in law Ran, and the handsome (but woman-wary) doctor Will Graham, to find out what the crying is. But when the ghostly apparition of a beautiful, sad woman appears, Jo begins to dig into the past of Ran's family, and discovers a web of lies, murder, and terror centering on a lost child...

Quite honestly I had difficulty sleeping after reading this novel -- the climax is intense and terrifying, as is the revelation of who committed those murders. There were plenty of suspects, but at the same time no one would suspect the guilty party.

Jo is an excellent heroine: smart, wry, brave, and loyal to her sister, who is a rather nebulous presence once it's discovered that, while unstable, she's not totally delusional. I thought Ran was something of a controlling fink, but he was very human in his flaws and strong points (loves his wife, wants a child, etc). I disliked Will initially, because of his rather hostile stance toward women, but began to warm to him as the novel progressed.

A delightful ghost story/mystery. Just don't read it after dark!

Rating:
Summary: Chilling
Review: I found this to be a very chilling tale. I couldn't put this book down and I look forward to reading other titles by Mrs. Michaels. The suspense is amazing as you find there are more than plenty of suspects, but that you never suspected the actual evil doer.

Rating:
Summary: Chilling
Review: I found this to be a very chilling tale. I couldn't put this book down and I look forward to reading other titles by Mrs. Michaels. The suspense is amazing as you find there are more than plenty of suspects, but that you never suspected the actual evil doer.

Rating:
Summary: Not one of Barbara Michaels' finer ghost stories
Review: The Crying Child is one of Barbara Michaels' earlier efforts, and the setting is a promising one: an isolated, sparsely populated Maine island. The ghost-story part of the plot was appropriately chilling. And I found the heroine rather engaging: very young, a bit awkward, but plucky and down-to-earth. However, it's clear that Ms. Michaels didn't spend much time on developing the other characters in this novel, esp. the "hero", a small-town doctor whose grouchy, graceless demeanor is clearly meant to mask a heart of gold. Ms. Michaels' writing is so clumsy, though, that I found him to be just, well, obnoxious. The other characters, like the neurotic sister, aren't presented much more sympathetically, so I for one didn't much care if they were all carried off by ghostly apparitions.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Ghost Story
Review: This the very first Barbara Micheals book. It was so good I read it in a day and a half and then went to the libary and checked out every book they had of hers!! I really wish I would've began reading her sooner.