The Magic Cottage

Novel by James Herbert (England) 1986.

Even before setting her eyes on the country cottage called Gramarye, Midge Gudgeon is sure that it's for her. And after moving in, with her boyfriend Mike Stringer, life is blissfully happy. Even when strange things start happening, nothing can detract from their newly-found perfection. But tension gradually builds as the incidents get scarier, until the final confrontation between the couple and the local Synergist temple, an outwardly pleasant and friendly group that nevertheless seem to have a dark secret. And the catalyst seems to be their perfect cottage itself.

Easily Herbert's most gentle novel to date, it doesn't have the all-out shock tactics of The Rats, The Fog or The Dark. In fact it's seemingly so lightweight that it was serialised in Woman magazine! But what seems light also has hints of more sinister material which build and build until erupting in a stunning finale. The happiness of the first part of the book, or 'magic' as Herbert frequently refers to it, is something that he hasn't been able to write about much before in books that are usually emotional in darker ways. But here he shows he can handle bliss as well as fear, despair or hate. It's also surprising to find a style that's relatively American, again much different from the author's intrinsic Englishness. Something of a departure for Herbert, but nonetheless one of his best books.