By: Allison Brook

 

Though I’ve never met a ghost, I’ve read enough about

ghost sightings and hauntings to believe they exist. Experts in the field say some spirits remain earthbound because they’ve experienced a brutal or sudden death and don’t realize they’re dead. Others remain here because they have unfinished business or issues they need to resolve before passing on.

 

Though his best friend, the town’s police chief, has declared his death an accident, Cam knows he was murdered. Trouble is, he doesn’t know who did it, and he can’t move on until he does. When Gabbie Meyerson rents his family’s cottage—the only place where he can manifest —Cam nags and cajoles until she agrees to investigate. Gabbie starts asking questions, and to her dismay discovers that several of Cam’s so-called friends and neighbors are glad he’s dead and are possible suspects.

 

Twelve-year-old Vannie Taylor, the protagonist in my young YA novel, GETTING BACK TO NORMAL, has just lost her mother, and her father is a basket case without her. Vannie meets Archie the ghost, hours after her father has moved her and her brother into a dingy cottage on the estate where he manages events. Archie appears to be carefree and funny. Dressed in a tuxedo, he performs cartwheels and handstands.

 

But Archie is far from carefree. He was twenty-five when he died chasing the thief who stole his wife’s necklace. Archie tells Vannie that before he can go to his rest, he must atone for having left his wife and their one-year-old son. She is astonished to learn that Mayda, her parents’ close friend and the last of the family that once owned the estate, is Archie’s granddaughter. Archie implores Vannie to encourage the budding relationship between her father and Mayda—the one thing Vannie doesn’t want to happen. But it may be the only way her life can get back to normal.

 

In DEATH OVERDUE, the first book in my Haunted Library series, Evelyn Havers is the sixty-something ghost that haunts the Clover Ridge Library where she worked as an aide for many years. She urges my sleuth, Carrie Singleton, to accept the position of Head of Programs and Events when Carrie is about to turn it down. Carrie takes Evelyn’s advice. When her first program presenter dies in front of a roomful of library patrons, Carrie investigates his murder and that of the cold case he’s claimed to have solved. Evelyn helps Carrie in her investigation. 

 

Through Carrie, the only person besides Carrie’s little cousin who can see and talk to her, Evelyn acts as guardian angel of the people of Clover Ridge In DEWEY DECIMATED, the sixth book in the series, another ghost comes on the scene. The library has acquired the building next door. During renovations, a body is discovered in the

basement. When the workers break through the wall, the ghost of the dead man enters the library and frightens the patrons. He has no idea who he is or why he’s in Clover Ridge.

 

The ghost turns out to be Carrie’s fiancés uncle. Carrie and Evelyn have a hard time keeping him out of sight while they find out who murdered him and why. It’s only when his murderer is discovered that he can go to his rest.

 

Ghosts, real or imagined, always add a dimension to a novel.