Ghosts

From Publishers Weekly
Sleepy Nantucket Island has become a homicide hotspot, with two unexplained deaths. While the murders appear to local cops to be unrelated, Detective Timothy Brooks, a recent transplant to the island, sees similarities in the corpses' wounds. Meanwhile, spectral disturbances, including sightings and eerie moving furniture, are plaguing both locals as well as the summer crowd. Hollywood star Annette Carlson, who bought a place following a stint in drug rehab, is besieged by visitations that she is certain are not figments of her overtaxed imagination. Brooks begins to see parallels between the recent killings and Carlson's bizarre accounts. He contacts his buddy, Lutheran minister and spiritualist George Osaro, to help identify the evil spirit--the ghost of Henry Flaherty, a no-account lothario and stage actor who was killed in the late 1920s. Soon, Osaro, Brooks and Carlson are pressed into service as "ghostbusters" to save Nantucket from a paranormal meltdown. Alternately playful and somber in tone, written in spare prose, Hynd's ( False Flags ) lengthy story will arouse fear and suspicion in any reader who has ever heard things go "bump"--day or night. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
A malevolent spirit is haunting the Nantucket house of actress Annette Carlson. It has killed at least three people with sickening viciousness. It now insinuates itself inside the head of policeman Timothy Brooks, a skeptical investigator forced against his will to recognize the existence of the occult. Brooks must lay this spirit to rest before it tires of toying with him and Annette and kills them both. With this novel, espionage writer Hynd makes his debut in the realm of the supernatural. A ghost novel needs to convince unbelieving readers against their will and scare the liver out of them, and Ghosts does this in spades. The atmosphere builds steadily, moving from reality to an utterly convincing realm of the supernatural. Public libraries need to buy this.- Marylaine Block, St. Ambrose Univ. Lib., Davenport, Ia.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


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Supernatural sightings aren't new on Nantucket Island. The Reverend George Osaro, a Lutheran minister, even runs an occasional "Spiritual Nantucket" night to collect ghost stories and raise money for the church. But a series of bizarre happenings, including the grisly murder of a college girl, a pen of ducks with their necks neatly snapped, and a young boy suspiciously drowning, seems to indicate the rise of a more odious spirit. Detective Tim Brooks is drawn into the case when Annette Carlson, an attractive film star who bought a house on the island as a retreat, is troubled by prowling women in white, unexplained noises, and flying furniture. Brooks and Carlson become believers, lovers, and finally coconspirators as Carlson's home becomes the scene of more and more violence. Both are more skeptical than Osaro, at first, but they join with him to face down the evil. Atmospheric details and tight plotting effectively build tension and keep the reader turning pages to the white-knuckled conclusion. Word of mouth will guarantee brisk circulation.


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