Listen free for 30 days
-
Ash
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey
- Length: 22 hrs and 37 mins
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Ash
Buy Now for £21.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
Summary
David Ash, detective of the paranormal, is sent to the mysterious Comraich Castle, secluded deep in the Scottish countryside, to investigate a strange, high-profile case. A man has been found crucified in a locked room. The reports suggest that the cliff-top castle is being haunted.... Who or what is the reclusive hooded figure that Ash has seen from the window walking across the courtyard in the dead of night? What are the strange, animal-like sounds that come from the surrounding woods? And why are the castle's inhabitants so reluctant to talk about what they have seen? What Ash eventually discovers is truly shocking....
Featuring one of Herbert's best-loved characters, first encountered in The Ghosts of Sleath and Haunted, Ash is a ghost story like no other that will chill you to the marrow.
More from the same
What listeners say about Ash
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall2 out of 5 stars
-
Performance2 out of 5 stars
-
Story2 out of 5 stars
- Mr. A. J. Bond
- 14-07-19
Sponsored by Maglite
I’ve not read any James Herbert for a long time so I thought I’d give this a go. The main character was immensely dislikeable and seemed to be more interested in Maglites, which are described at length, than the supernatural. The supernatural elements are mostly irrelevant to the story and the main character doesn’t really achieve anything.
The dialogue is awful and the love interest is a simpering, insecure character who often needs a firm hand from the main character to calm her down .
This also features one of the worst sex scenes I’ve ever heard or read. This is made even worse by the narrator who is not well suited to the text, unless you enjoy your grandad reading you porn. He also can’t pronounce the word “grimace “, which Herbert uses a lot.
Finally, the use of real life personalities is both tacky and unnecessary. I won’t spoil anything by going into any details but there is a scene towards the end which managed to be both tasteless and nauseatingly twee.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
47 people found this helpful
-
Overall1 out of 5 stars
-
Performance1 out of 5 stars
-
Story1 out of 5 stars
- GW
- 24-06-20
It made me grim-ace, it was so bad....
The narrator's pronunciation of grimace is annoying.
The author's favourite word is grimace.
I genuinely started off thinking this was a 1970s book because the lead female character is so fragile and pathetic.
The sex was embarrassing.
The attempts to shock were desperate.
The 'story' could have been covered in a third of the time.
James Herbert's early books were fantastic. This was not. Repetition. Boredom. Wandering nonesense.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
27 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
- vicki
- 12-04-13
Great!!
This book will not let you stop listening until its finished. Brilliant listen. Lots of twists and turns dark and full of suspense. Good plot all the way through.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
25 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Michael
- 13-04-13
Goes out with a bang!
Was really looking forward to this as I'm a huge James Herbert fan, and loved his previous books from this series, and now I'm gutted there will be no more as the great man has passed. This book was better than expected (and I expected excellence) I couldn't take my headphones out and was a little sad when the book was done. Great performance to go out on RIP Mr Herbert.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
22 people found this helpful
-
Overall3 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story1 out of 5 stars
- Jamie Rawson
- 25-08-20
Hilariously bad!
Are you a fan of Top Gear? Read the Daily Mail? Don’t understand why Alan Partridge is funny? Then this my friend is the audiobook for you! It’s got everything you could possibly want: it’s got the dashing hero (alcohoc, obviously) and the beautiful doctor who falls in love with him instantly. It’s got maglites. It’s overly long descriptions of cars and firearms. It’s got maglites. It’s got hot lesbian nurses. And it’s got maglites.
The plot, if you can call it that, revolves around a secret Scotish castle where all the world’s most evil people go to see out their days in luxury. When Lord Lucan turned up, I chuckled. When Hitler’s secret lovechild appeared I laughed so hard I had to rewind it because I missed what was said. By the time Colonel Gadaffi and Princess Diana’s ghost turned up I’d given up. The first two-thirds of the book are hilariously bad; the ending is just bad (how do you get a killer man eating spider out of your way? That’s right, you throw a rat at it. But a rat that’s ON FIRE). It’s like the author tried to write a serious version on Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace... and still ended up writing Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace.
A terrible book, but it had me laughing out loud all the way through, and I loved it!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
19 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- patricia
- 14-08-13
Ash
Brilliant couldn not stop listening love James Herbert books read other books and always enjoyed narrator brought characters to life
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
17 people found this helpful
-
Overall1 out of 5 stars
- Mr Paul Johnson
- 25-09-12
Unbelievably, undeniably dreadful.....
I lived on James Herbert as a child (in my 40's now) and loved everything he's done but this is absolutely awful.
Lazy mental health stereotypes - patients and professionals, I've not heard the word asylum or lunatic in modern day mental health for years, badly researched poorly executed (okay - I work in mental health so was even more tuned into these references). I didn't like any character - including Ash! Louis was cool but only because the actor has a silly voice that you couldn't help but laugh at...
I was sooooo disappointed with this the best bit about it was the end. Save yourself some money & buy a bottle of wine & a bag of chips instead!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
15 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Helen
- 28-09-12
Well Worth The Wait
The Haunted by James Herbert was the first audiobook I listened to as part of the RNIB's Talking Book Service a few years ago, that was before audible of course and since then I've enjoyed many titles via downloads from here, when I saw that Ash was available last week I wasted no time at all in ordering and downloading it.
Well worth the wait, the anticipation of a follow up book with more from David Ash I am certainly not disappointed. The book is well written, in depth, highly descriptive, interesting main characters with brilliantly depicted supporting cast, quite thought provoking in terms of authority figures, the powerful, rich, famous and infamous, some truths thrown in to the mix so it truly is fun and interesting deciding which is which as the story unfolds, brilliant continuity between Ash and The Haunted although if you'd never read The Haunted it wouldn't really matter as Ash is a stand alone book in its own right not strictly a follow up, it is just nice that there are references to the character's past experiences in this one. James Herbert has done exceptionally well to keep me interested, every single day this week I've been excited to sit down and relax to listen to more and more, could hardly leave the book alone always wanting to listen to more.
Read by the brilliant Steven Pacey the characters, castle and surroundings are well and truly brought to life, its made to sound so real the whole experience was incredibly thrilling. Pacey and Herbert are a fantastic combination, after finishing Ash this morning its made me want more from this duo in the future, I certainly hope there is another story in the making for our psychic detective and psychologist characters, I think that would just be brilliant.
Only one small niggle about the plot, Kate does not feature much towards the end, I found that a bit disappointing and would definitely like to hear more from her character as well.
Thank you James and Steven, loved Ash and cant wait to read more.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
14 people found this helpful
-
Overall3 out of 5 stars
-
Performance2 out of 5 stars
-
Story4 out of 5 stars
- andy
- 08-10-13
Its not bad
James Herbert was the guy that got me into reading, i was hooked by him and read everything he did at that time, and I think thats the problem my reading has moved on but James books havent. Dont get me wrong the story has some depth to it and I found I cared about the main characters but it just didnt do it for me.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
11 people found this helpful
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
- Swords and Spectres
- 26-03-13
Enjoyable listen
I have read some of the reviews on here and am shocked that people found the story to be worthy of only 1 star. Perhaps because this is one of my first Herbert titles, I am not as used to his 'better' works. But I really enjoyed this and the narration of the piece.
I thought it was a good story with vibrant characters that you either loved or hated quite clearly. Some things seemed to fall into place a little too easily. Most notably the entire storyline to do with Cedric Twigg. But besides that, I felt it flowed rather smoothly and certainly enjoyed listening to it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
11 people found this helpful
-
Overall2 out of 5 stars
-
Performance2 out of 5 stars
-
Story1 out of 5 stars
- Unzipt
- 12-12-12
What A Mess!
What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?
A better story with a comprehensible conclusion.
What was most disappointing about James Herbert’s story?
The most disappointing thing about ASH was the story itself. The book's beginning is interesting, with characters one quickly decides are likeable and unlikeable. The book then cascades into a series of inexplicable, and wholly unbelievable, occurrences that are never connected to one another in any meaningful way despite the constant intimation that there is some common explanation. Ash, the titular parapsychologist, never explains (perhaps, never understands) what is happening. The book's casst of ridiculous characters includes Hitler's bastard daughter, all grown up and crazy as hell, and the transparent (as in one can literally see his internal organs) prematurely born son of Princess Diana who comes to take her son into her loving embrace at novel's end. Oh, and did I forget to mention Qaddafi. 'Nuff said.
Would you be willing to try another one of Steven Pacey’s performances?
No.
What character would you cut from Ash?
Hitler's daughter and Louie, the son of Princess Diana
Any additional comments?
Save your Audible credit
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall3 out of 5 stars
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- reg mountford
- 29-12-16
don't think this would have been the last
great story needed a follow on which couldn't happen great author brilliant storyline classic Herbert
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall1 out of 5 stars
-
Performance3 out of 5 stars
-
Story1 out of 5 stars
- N. R. Gawlak
- 29-11-14
Not even Pacey could save this turkey
I managed to get through to Chapter 7 and couldn't listen any further. Stephen Pacey is as good a British narrator as I've ever heard...but even his credible narration could not make this awful novel into something entertaining, mildly interesting or enjoyable. The author should do "graphic novels" and forget any literary ambitions, at least, in this genre. Listening to this brought back the memory of listening to another audiobook wherein the author attempted to describe his characters almost entirely, by describing or mentioning, the popular music they liked. This author, though, uses a very different method to achieve the same effect... by using untold billions of descriptive adjectives and adverbs to "flesh out" his characters, settings, etc. But every word "picture" he tries to paint seems drawn, in sets, from previous material that is ever so familiar. His literary "inventions" are so trite, so hackneyed, that, although one may not remember the exact,original source(s), one already knows them by heart, long before this author ever pasted them in. Like, "the castle". Think about every popular image you have of a dark and brooding manse, all the images that one has ever heard about, read about, seen in movies or tv, or video games, even. Now, if one selects the image one has encountered most frequently, that seems to be the most popular, the one that just pops up first, that's the one the author uses. He applied that method to the first 7 chapters of this book, at least. Call the method "Write By Numbers". The novel is supposed to be a mystery, I think. This author does not know a mystery from a flight of migrating Canadian geese.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall1 out of 5 stars
-
Performance3 out of 5 stars
-
Story1 out of 5 stars
- Don
- 04-03-13
Bilge
What would have made Ash better?
Ash dying of a flesh eating virus on 1st page.
Has Ash turned you off from other books in this genre?
Yes
What character would you cut from Ash?
Ash
Any additional comments?
If an author chooses to write a plot involing a medical discipline such as Psychiatry, he should have the good grace to inform himself a little on the subject.
And certainly not refer to Psychiatric patients as Lunatics.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story4 out of 5 stars
- Mary
- 30-10-12
A good story, it definately had some scary parts.
I would recommend this book, the fact that all the bad guys from the real world turned fictional got wasted was great. All though I was disappointed with Louis's end, to have gone through all the horror with such strength even though his illness was so severe and then to not be able to be with Ash and the doctor was sad, but to have gone to his mother was good and very tearful. This was a strange book, but I liked it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall2 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story2 out of 5 stars
- Spencer
- 14-11-22
Trying too Hard
I'll give two reasons for why this novel didn't work for me. The first is that it really seems like the author was trying to shock or disgust me, rather than succeeding at scaring me. There's scenes of extreme gore where the action doesn't really call for it, a predatory lesbian character, and a writhing maggots scene that was more disgusting than disturbing. I want to enjoy the building atmosphere but these forced shocks let the air out of it. There's also two assassin characters, one of which gets nowhere.
That said, politics cannot be removed from the equation. I was on the fence about this book for a while, but when the author had two female heroes talk about how great Margaret Thatcher was, that was the last straw. You may be able to enjoy this book more if you agree with or can ignore the author's politics, but I couldn't.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall1 out of 5 stars
-
Performance1 out of 5 stars
-
Story1 out of 5 stars
- DBF
- 19-01-20
Stupidity
Worst book of his I have read. I have read nearly all. Ridiculous happenings using bats rats spiders maggots flies. Easy seen through plot and those guilty. I want my money back on this one Audible.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Eff Ewe Leo
- 07-05-15
Great story
Story was great though strange catching throwback references to the "The Rats" series of books slipped in which is a very King style of writing that Aside it was a great listen
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Patricia Lucero
- 29-03-15
Great great great
James Herbert's best as far as I'm concerned... Very spooky but yet believe able. The reader took you right there....loved it..
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall2 out of 5 stars
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story2 out of 5 stars
- Cathryn
- 14-12-12
Absurdity Unleashed
What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?
A better book
What do you think your next listen will be?
The Mystery of Edwinn Drood by Charles Dickens
What does Steven Pacey bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
He brings the English
If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Ash?
No comment
Any additional comments?
Middle aged sex - no thank you
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!