The Greatcoat by Helen Dunmore

The Greatcoat is described in almost every review as a classic ghost story, which it is, but more in the style of Demi Moore Patrick Swayze spinning pottery, than a haunting by a presence invoked by the blackened souls of the murdered, type of horror story. I prefer to have a scare, but this was entertaining and well written, if not "the most elegant flesh creeper since The Woman In Black" (The Times).

Kirby Minster, East Riding, 1952. Isabel and country doctor Patrick are newlyweds getting to know the rhythms of a new town, though Patrick is away most hours on house calls. Near the town there was an active airstrip for Lancaster bombers, and their house was once lodging for the men. Isabel takes to walking out to explore the derelict, abandoned property. On a cold night Isabel finds in the back of a cupboard an RAF greatcoat, the heavy kind worn by airmen, and wearing it comforts her. Several nights she hears a tapping at the window, and soon Isabel is seeing a man in the mist outside. He is tall and fair, strongly built, with the Viking look of men from the far north-east and a Geordie accent, so, obviously, we're opening the door. With Patrick gone, he welcomes himself in as if he lived there, drinking her gin and leaving a soldering cigarette in the ashcan when he leaves. While he visits, the greatcoat vanishes. Soon Patrick thinks his wife is either drinking all the gin herself, or having an affair - which she is - with the airman. Time slips when she is with him and they can visit the active airfield, she can feel his warmth. Isabel begins to experience a previous life, with a connection to their cantankerous landlady who paces the floor above them, and past secrets unfold as history begins to repeat itself.

I would call this a romantic fantasy novel, but it is also an interesting account of wartime life, with rationing and compromise, under the cloud of the unknown. Husbands and brothers flying off to Europe never to return was a reality, and the drone of Lancaster's fell from the sky. If you are a fan of wartime stories as I am, and especially Lancaster's in action, the backdrop of the bombers will satisfy.

A side note: this was published by Hammer Books, from Hammer Studios, the company who brought you so many Christopher Lee - Peter Cushing horror films in the 1960's and 1970's that "Hammer Horror" became a genre unto itself. Because of that my expectation ran to creepy and macabre, but this ghost story still fulfills as well rounded and recommended.

2012 / Tradeback / 255 pages