Professor Aldous Crane, knowledgeable about the occult, but a skeptic, is called to retrieve some rare bottles from a fanatic wine collector's cellar. With an exceptionally well-done ambience and a strong narrative voice, the book manages to be entertaining, funny, and chilling at times.

The plot itself is relatively simple and linear, with flashbacks of Aldous' life intertwined into the main narrative. Still, the descriptions are nicely done in a way that creates tension, anticipation, and suspense. The flashbacks are quite entertaining and serve as a way to back up Aldous characterization.

The Professor is the main character and the most well-developed one. The dialogues do a great job of characterizing him, and he was quite funny at times. Boudin, the wine collector, is the only other character we get to know, and his past is mysterious, weird enough to give him a dangerous and enigmatic aura, without going too overboard to risk disbelief. Other characters serve as a great way to enhance both Boudin and Aldous' characters and history but are not really developed further than that.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone who would like a read with a great and chilling ambience. It is a bit short but feels like the right length for the story that is being told. The narrative has some humour intertwined that works really well to give some laughs between the tension — all in all, an entertaining read.

No sound should be there when you're alone."