This is a masterfully told tale that is all the more notable because it is also an oft told tale. The setting is immediately after WWII in a battered and beaten England. Rationing is worse than during the war. Medical care comes out of your pocket and the grand old estates of England are in the hands of their ancestral families and most are well on the road to decay.
Dr. Faraday is our eyes on this scene. He is the country GP and Hundreds Hall is the grand old estate of his area. His mother worked as a servant there when he was a child and he fell in love with it's grandeur. As a result, he has a romanticized view of the place and the people who live in it--unfortunately, this seriously clouds his judgment, a mistake that repeatedly comes back to haunt him. Oh, and by the way, the house is also haunted.
One of the great pleasures of the book is the way the author combines spookiness with sharp social observation. She is at home in a convincing postwar setting; however much we pity the family at Hundreds Hall, as their ancestral pile and their sanity collapse about them, Waters never lets us lose sight of their repulsive social attitudes--they feel they are better than others, and take advantage of Dr. Faraday's acceptance of this inequality at every turn. It does seem, at one point, as if it is the spirit of snobbery that may be haunting them.
The doctor himself and the tone of the book overall is slightly morose, tinged with a mixture of hope and regret. He is blinded to the situation he is in, so as the plot reveals itself and the family unravels, he is taken unawares but we are not. It is an outstanding book.
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