Paulina

A summer house-swap takes Rebecca and her family from their bungalow in Cornwall to a luxury house in Connecticut with its swimming pool and Buick. But while the sweet and caring George and Annie take off for Cornwall they leave behind Paulina; actually two Paulinas. One is the neighbour's daughter, 'by day the homecoming queen, by night the Bride of Frankenstein', who uses the house and its pool for partying; the other is the ghostly Paulina, 'poorlina', re-living her tragic family life and death of sixteen years ago. Not a dream-holiday but a studied, nightmarish one. This book shows that Howarth can write a good, but unexceptional modern horror story, complete with American setting. Perhaps it will attract new readers to her other, more exceptional and gripping stories.