This book has received up and down reviews which did not deter me from reading it. I have read quite a few true haunting books and this one rates up there with the best of them.

The setting of the story is in London in a town called Enfield back in 1977. The Harper family (which includes Mrs. Harper and her four children) is an ordinary family that has to endure paranormal activity in their home. What becomes known as the Enfield poltergeist wrecks havoc on this family to the point that they have Maurice Grosse along with a friend Guy Lyon Playfair (the author of this book) from the Society of Physical Research come in to investigate the haunting.

The author, Guy Playfair, mentions in the beginning of the book that the story is kind of drawn out over a period of a year which when reading the book it does seem to get monotonous throughout the story as every day there is something going on in the house.

There is more to this poltergeist than just it banging on walls as it proceeds to drive the Harper family nearly insane with all of the antics it does to them. There is quite an extensive amount of activity with furniture moving, beds shaking, bodies levitating, doors opening and closing on their own, cold drafts, knocking on the walls, ceiling, and floors.

It is almost like a house possessed and the family within is caught in the middle of it. Some parts of the book I found to be scary and I felt bad that the family could not just leave this home.

Another interesting part of the book is it does contain pictures of some of the activity which I found to be interesting.

The author went into great detail with everything that the Harper family endured and that might be why this book has received mixed reviews, because there is quite a bit to take in all at one time. I just took my time reading it so that I could absorb the story so to speak. I think it is a very good detailed account of the what went on in Enfield in 1977 and I am giving this book four stars. ( )

This is such a famous and fascinating incident that I really wanted to find out more about the events surrounding this supposed poltergeist haunting. However, the writing style was really not good; clunky and badly written, it put me off finishing the book - hence the 2 1/2 star rating. It's absolutely fascinating, but I wish the author had employed a ghost writer (so to speak) to write the story for him, because it could have been so much more gripping and enjoyable if it was well written. ( )

Fascinating! ( )