Haunted Houses

It's the end of October, which means Halloween is just around the corner. I decided to prepare by looking through our horror section for something scary. What I came up with was a couple of ghost stories that might be just the thing to send a tingle up your spine.

The Haunted

By Bentley Little

The Perry family is looking for a better neighborhood. Someplace they can raise their kids. Though they finally agree on a two-story home near the city's historic district, it's not long before they start to have doubts. As soon as they move in their daughter, Claire, starts receiving threatening text messages. James, their son, is beginning to act strangely. And no one in the family likes going into the basement, for reasons they're afraid to discuss. Soon they notice that they hardly ever see their neighbors, and stories about their house's deadly history start to pop up. When they try to contact the real estate agent who sold them the house, she clearly doesn't want to talk about it.  Just what have they gotten themselves into? And how can they get back out?

This is a classic American haunting. An average family moves into an average house and begins a not-so-average descent into terror.

Gethsemane Hall

By David Annandale

According to local legend Gethsemane Hall is host to the benevolent spirit of Saint Rose. But after the death of a ghost hunter the house becomes embroiled in controversy. Lord Richard Gray, tired of all the attention, invites a group of skeptics and believers to research the house's spiritual inhabitant. There's a team  who believes that ghosts are inherently good, a team that believes ghosts are imaginary, and a couple of folks with their own agendas. It's soon obvious that something unnatural is going on at the house, but is it also unholy? Even the true believers are left quivering in fear as they learn more and more about the presence that inhabits this place. The residents of the village nearby could have told them to stay away. Every one of them dreads going to the Hall, just as they are drawn to it. They know that if they travel down the tree-lined drive they might never come back.

The language in this book is more florid than that of The Haunted, but the scares are just as potent. There's plenty of blood and gore in this dank horror story set in scary old England.

Review by Danny Hanbery

Click the covers or the titles above to request either of these books.