The Darkest Part of the Woods

I am still reading The Darkest Part of the Woods by Ramsey Campbell. I'm thoroughly enjoying it, I'm just a slow reader and my life doesn't leave me very much time to spend reading.

I'm 2/3 of the way through the book, and there has been a steady, eerie build up. There have only been one or two dramatic events, it's mostly the tone that is conveying a deeper and deeper sense of dread. Let me read you a passage. Actually, let me give you the scene first--it's a funeral in a church, and Heather is watching her sister speak. The sister has paused.

"For a moment Heather took her pause to mean she was keeping a memory to herself, and then she heard the interruption, a repeated scratch of something like a fingernail. It came from the direction of the coffin--from the window beyond it, where a leaf or a large insect was twitching next to Christ's left foot."

I love that the sound is not actually coming from the coffin, but that for one fleeting instant you think that it might be. The book is very creepy, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be creeped out by yet. It's great.

That's all I wanted to say. I've been thinking about this since I read that line almost a week ago.