Control-Shift

There is a cleverly developed ghost story at the heart of this novel and the unravelling of the mystery of his identity and his motives is very well done with the line between the factual and the fantastic blurring in credible and spooky fashion. The family's move into the old house sparks it all off, with the father's software for new fighter planes the catalyst for the ghost's anger; an anger which has festered since injustices of WW1. The framing device of the court case is less successful and largely unnecessary dragging the story too far into the plain light of reality. The writer reveals a talent for the atmosphere of the ghostly real as the past permeates the present.