The After-Death of Caroline Rand

The latest work of supernatural horror from Cavendish (Dark Observation) makes a surreal and unfocused attempt at evoking both the free-love spirit and the creepy cults of the late 1960s. Allegra “Allie” Sinclair is invited to a weekend party at an estranged friend’s manor house in the English countryside with a throwback ’60s theme, only to arrive and discover that there are evil forces at work in the manor. Sometimes these forces take the form of ghosts; sometimes Allie seems to travel back in time and across the ocean to Laurel Canyon, Calif. The logic behind the haunting is difficult to parse, rendering these experiences largely meaningless beyond their atmospheric spookiness. The characters, including the late Caroline Rand, the British singer who owned the manor house before she was found dead within it, are also hard to pin down—their motivations, backstories, and relationships to Allie are all constantly fluctuating. With so little to grasp onto, the scares themselves don’t always land. As a compilation of eerie, ’60s-themed vignettes this works well enough, but readers hoping to get their adrenaline racing will be disappointed. (July)