Pacing & shorthand development are everything in category books like gothics or Harlequins -- as proven by this particular specimen. While the underlying story was a good one (& could've been quite scary in the hands of a quality author), the final product lacks oomph. The incidents are rushed & the development is flatline-to-nonexistent. All the right elements are there, but they're utilized as subtly as a bag of hammers. It's just plain FLAT, y'all.
That said, it does have a cheesy, compulsive, gotta-know-how-it-ends readability, so I'm bumping it to 3 stars.