The Good Sisters by Helen Phifer
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
1933, Mother Superior Agnes offers sanctuary to a desperate young woman fleeing for her life. Only to wake in the morning to discover a terrible fate has befallen one of the Sisters. Over 80 years later, Kate Parker, divorced, alcoholic, and broke, moves into the dilapidated old convent she dreams of turning into a bed and breakfast, whilst changing her life.
I do love a good horror story, but they have to have an element of realism first, before going off into the realms of nightmares. Everything was going well, suitably creepy things happening to ordinary people. But then we were told that the sister who had been killed in the convent in 1933 had been chopped into pieces and the room was locked from the inside. I didn’t believe in Sister Agnes’ reaction to the conundrum of how Sister Mary could have managed to chop herself to bits! The best horror is based on realism slowly built up so that you believe in the characters first, so you can then believe in the story once it starts to get horrific. I found this book to be too formulaic for me. I did finish it, but found I was skimming pages to get to the end.
The Good Sisters is available from Amazon here.
Wendy Cartmell 