Floating Staircase

Ronald Malfi, 2011 pb.

Travis Glascow is haunted by the traumatic death of his younger brother when Travis was 13 years old.  When he and his wife Jodie move from London to Maryland to live near his brother Adam, the psychological ghost of his brother Kyle is joined by what seems to be a true haunting in their new home. This novel is as much about obsession and a mystery thriller as it is about paranormal events.  The writing style and the fact that the main character is an introspective writer remind me a lot of Stephen King's works. It took me quite a while (about 130 pages of skimming) to get into this book, but it did keep me reading to the end to find out what happens.  I don't know if the reader is supposed to feel sympathetic toward Travis but I found him irritating and not very likable. If you like Stephen King's style and books that are as psychologically explorative as they are plot driven, you will enjoy reading this novel.  492pp.

  The Ridge   by  Michael Koryta  2011

Set in eastern Kentucky, in this book the haunted spot is Blade Ridge its woods so creepy and dangerous that the town drunk/eccentric actually set up a light house to keep the dark at bay.  Unfortunately, several events are set to coincide that greatly disturb the shaky status quo that has been achieved.  When the light house owner is found dead, and the owner of a wild cat sanctuary relocates their 67 large cats there Deputy Sheriff Kimble is drawn into the mysteries that inhabit those woods.  The pace is good, with the creep factor increasing steadily.  I had tried one of this author's previous books and found it slow, but this one was hard to put down.  Good characters, plot and writing make this one I highly recommend.

The Ghost Orchid

Carol Goodman, 2007 pb

Ellis Brooks is a writer invited to an artists' retreat at the long abandoned Bosco estate in the Adirondack mountains to write her first novel.  Inspired by a pamphlet she fatefully discovered describing a seance that took place there in 1893,  Ellis Brooks comes to Bosco to write about the tragedies that befell the Latham family and the role Corinth Blackwell, a spiritual medium, might have played.  Bosco and its grounds seem to have never been able to shrug off the aura of tragedy and the past intermingles with the present to affect the people staying there now.  The book travels back and forth between the past and the present.  Events become more eerie and mysterious as the past seeps into the present.  The pacing, dialogue and characters are all excellently done. A book I was sorry to reach the end of - a very good ghost story.

 The Loveliest Dead

 Ray Garton, 2009, pb.

 David and Jenna Kellar are trying to cope with the death of their younger son when an opportunity comes to move to a house left to Jenna by her father, whom she never knew.  As you might assume, once there things start going bump in the night.  At the same time, a psychic in a nearby town starts having visions about a family in serious danger from the paranormal.  While I found David and Jenna's characters a little hard to warm up to,  the other characters and the plot kept me reading.  I must admit I was amused by Garton's unflattering portrayal of a fictional older couple from CT who are demonologists and  are extremely media hungry.

Ghosts

Noel Hynd, 1992   pb

 On Nantucket newly arrived Detective Timothy Brooks investigates two murders and then finds links to bizarre paranormal happenings in the home of a resident celebrity, actress Annette Carlson.  Brooks enlists the help of his buddy George Osaro who is a minister and knowledgable of the paranormal.  As events escalate, so does the risk to the residents of the island.

Julian's House  

Judith Hawkes, 1991 pb

 A married couple who are parapsychologists move into a haunted house to do research, but the results are more than they and their relationship can handle. 

The House that Jack Built  

Graham Masterton, 2000 pb

Wealthy New Yorker Craig Bellman happens upon a deserted, decrepit mansion on the Hudson and becomes obsessed with it.  After buying it he undergoes a metamorphosis into a cold, cruel man.  His wife is desperate to find a way to untangle them all from the house's destiny.

The House Next Door

Anne Rivers Siddons, 1995 pb

Colquitt and Walter Kennedy live in an upscale Atlanta suburb and watch with sadness the destruction of their peace and solitude as an architect builds a large contemporary house on the lot next to their property.  The situation becomes more disturbing, though, when it seems that there is something about the house that wreaks havoc with the families that live there.  What is wrong with the house next door.....?

Five Mile House  

by Karen Novak, 2004 pb

 After a personal trauma, Detective Leslie Stone's husband accepts a job to undertake a restoration in a small New England town.  It turns out that his project, Five Mile House, was the home to a family in the 19th century in which the mother, Eleanor Bly, killed her seven children then herself.  The novel parallels the stories of the two women as Leslie becomes obsessed with the former occupant and murderer, and comes to believe the truth may differ from the accepted legend.

  by Alexandra Sokoloff, hardcover 2009

  I love haunted house books! And I so wanted to love (even like) this one when I started it.  The blurb sounded so promising, the premise familiar yet with a potentially good spin. Sadly, with so much potential this novel was just a disappointment.

Unfortunately, the characters were two dimensional preventing being able to connect with them as real people, and the writing had the style of someone who started as an author writing romance novels. Even the plot became a letdown with huge plot holes that made it so hard to suspend disbelief. (I won't go into detail as they would be spoilers.) I finished the book just on principle and hoping for a redeeming miracle at the end. No such luck.