My Friday Post: Printer’s Devil Court by Susan Hill

Published on by Margaret

Book Beginnings Button

Every Friday Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Gillion at Rose City Reader where you can share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.

This week I’m featuring Printer’s Devil Court: A Ghost Story by Susan Hill, one of the books I’ve borrowed from my local library. This is a novella of just 106 pages.

Printer's Devil Court

In my first year as a junior doctor I moved into lodgings in a small court close by Fleet Street, an area which could not at the time have changed greatly since the days of Dickens.

Also every Friday there is The Friday 56, hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice.

30879-friday2b56These are the rules:

  1. Grab a book, any book.
  2. Turn to page 56, or 56% on your eReader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
  3. Find any sentence (or a few, just don’t spoil it) that grabs you.
  4. Post it.
  5. Add the URL to your post in the link on Freda’s most recent Friday 56 post.

Page 56:

‘Do you not believe the evidence of your own eyes? How can what you witnessed tonight be some kind of trick or charade?

Blurb (Amazon)

A chilling ghost story by the author of The Woman in Black.

One murky November evening after a satisfying meal in their Fleet Street lodgings, a conversation between four medical students takes a curious turn and Hugh is initiated into a dark secret. In the cellar of their narrow lodgings in Printer’s Devil Court and a little used mortuary in a subterranean annex of the hospital, they have begun to interfere with death itself, in shadowy experiments beyond the realms of medical ethics. They call on Hugh to witness an event both extraordinary and terrifying.

Years later, Hugh has occasion to return to his student digs and the familiar surroundings resurrect peculiar and unpleasant memories of these unnatural events, the true horror of which only slowly becomes apparent.

~~~

I’ve loved some of Susan Hill’s books, but have found her novellas leave me feeling I want more – I hope this one lives up to the promise of its blurb.

What do you think? Would you keep reading?

8 thoughts on “My Friday Post: Printer’s Devil Court by Susan Hill”

  1. Susan Hill is one of my favourite authors. I like her ghost stories but they do vary a bit. I’ve read this one, don’t think I liked it quite as much as some of her others. That one set in Venice with a painting stealing people was a bit chilling for instance. And The Small Hand was quite good. To be honest I think I like her non-fiction (books about books etc.) and crime stories best of all. One of these days I really must try one or two of her standalones.

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    1. I like her non-fiction and crime fiction better than her short stories too – and I’ve read both of the ones you mention. I was hoping this one would be better. As you say the Venice one was a bit chilling, but I didn’t think the other one was at all.

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  3. Hmm…I’m not usually much of a one for ghost stories and that sort of thing, Margaret. But this one sounds intriguing. And I do like stories where we see the past’s impact on the present. I’ll be interested in what you think of this.

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