Review: Haunted House Murder (Compendium) by Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis, Barbara Ross #Halloween #HauntedHouses #murdermysteries

Summary:(Three different stories)

HAUNTED HOUSE MURDER by LESLIE MEIER
Newcomers to Tinker’s Cove, Ty and Heather Moon have moved into a dilapidated house reputed to be a haven for ghosts. Now strange noises and flickering lights erupt from the house at all hours and neighborly relations are on edge. And when a local boy goes missing near the house, it’s up to Lucy Stone to unravel the mystery of the eccentric couple and their increasingly frightful behavior.
 
DEATH BY HAUNTED HOUSE by LEE HOLLIS
For the past two years, the house next door to Hayley Powell has sat abandoned after the owner died under mysterious circumstances. The Salinger family has recently taken possession of the property, but the realtor behind the deal has vanished—after a very public and angry argument with Damien Salinger. If Bar Harbor’s newest neighbors are murderers, Hayley will haunt them until they confess.
 
HALLOWED OUT by BARBARA ROSS
With its history of hauntings and ghost sightings, Busman’s Harbor is the perfect setting for Halloween festivities. But when a reenactment of a Prohibition-era gangster’s murder ends with a literal bang and a dead actor from New Jersey, Julia Snowden must identify a killer before she ends up sleeping with the fishes.

My review:
I have to start out by saying that I did not read the last two stories. For some reason, I was unaware that this was three different authors and three different stories. Therefore, since I did not realize until after the first story, I am only going to review the first.

This story started out as a community who was fed up with an old dilapidated house in their neighborhood. It turns out, the house is suddenly sold and rumors begins because the neighbors aren't friendly at all. A hair raising event happens that causes uproar with the new neighbors and a funny twisted ending. Yes, I said funny.

A typical looking "haunted" house sets the scene nicely. Spooky noises with flickering lights make for the fun but spooky scare. Then there is the couple. A witch? A ghost? Ah, so much intrigue all wrapped up into a good little story. This story has everything a good cozy mystery would have.

I am giving this 3 pumpkins.

Disclosure: I borrowed a copy of this book from my local library. The views here are 100% my own and may differ from yours.

Your Crypt Keeper,
Michelle

Where to find the authors:
Amazon

Review: At the Old Haunted House by Helen Ketteman/Illustrated by Nate Wragg #Halloween #ScholasticBooks

Summary:
There are all kinds of creatures in the house.  Count along as the creatures prepare for the Halloween Fright. The text, written in the pattern of the popular poem “Over in the Meadow,” makes reading aloud fun, while the cinematic illustrations set the scene for an unforgettable romp through the old haunted house.

My review:
I absolutely loved the rhyming in the book. Each monster had its own rhyme and place they lived in the haunted house.

For example:
"In the old haunted house 
in a vault made of bricks
 lived a vampire 
and his little vamps six."

Children begin to show up in costumes which makes the book even more interesting as the reader wonders what they are going to do when they encounter the monsters. The twist comes about two pages to the end and is fun!

I liked that the book also taught children to count as they turned the pages. As an extension to the read, children can point as the count. Good beginning math for younger ones.

Finally, the illustrations were top notch as they matched the individual rhymes perfectly.Mostly blacks, darker blues, reds, yellow and white gave the spookiness the book was trying to convey.

This book is a winner and gets 5 pumpkins from me.

Disclosure: I purchased this book for my own collections. The views expressed here are 100% mine and may differ from yours.

~Crypt Keeper, Michelle

Where to find the author:
Amazon

Review of Stillwell and Giveaway

There is nothing quite like a good ghost story to stir the hairs on the back of your neck. Michael Phillip Cash accomplishes that very thing in his new book, Stillwell.

I had the opportunity to read this book the other night, when the super moon was shining down upon us, which made it even spookier. *cue evil laughter*

Michael Cash writes his newest thriller in such a way that the reader is taken through a weeks worth of life in seven chapters and a prolouge. I found the style to be compact and intriguing.

The book opens with the main character of Paul whose wife has just died of cancer. He is a real estate agent who put his life and the lives of his children on hold just to take care of her. He is preparing for his three children, a set of twins and a single, to arrive back in their home, this now being a week after the funeral of his beloved.

The story moves in to the family trying to come to terms with the death and have a new way of life, when one of the twins begins having horrid dreams of a monstrous being.  Paul too has the same kind of dreams in which he sees his wife being held captive.
The youngest also is 'seeing' her mother but cannot convince her father who does not believe in such things as ghost.

Getting back to some sort of normalcy Paul returns to his former business and is contracted by his friend to sell the Stillwell Manor Estate. A home where he had befriended one of the sons of the family that owned the house.

The only caveat is that the house is purported to be haunted and his friend's in-laws had just committed a murder-suicide in the home.

Paul becomes obsessed with the home when his dreams about his wife become entangled together with this homes history. Many intriguing and revealing secrets come to light as an all too familiarity to the ghost of the past from the Stillwell Manor, to the ghost of his present life begin to mesh.

Will Paul and his family ever find comfort in their loss? Will the ghost of the past finally be at peace? Read and find out!
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This thriller book offering from Michael Cash is brilliant. I loved every single minute of it and could not put it down, in truth, I could read it again and again! Do I hear movie in the near future?

If you like a good ghost story, intrigued by old houses or better yet, haunted houses, then this is the book for you.

This book receives:

Guess what? Michael Phillip Cash is generously giving away one of his books to my readers. 

That's right, you can win a copy here! The winner received his/her choice of a physical copy of the book or an Kindle edition if preferred. Best yet, this giveaway is open world wide. Don't wait!

Enter in the Rafflecopter below.

~Naila Moon

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book for my open and honest opinion. The opinions expressed here are 100% my own.

The giveaway is open world wide. Naila Moon of Once Upon A Time and Just The Stuff Ya Know is not responsible for distribution of prize. Winner will have 48 hours to respond to an e-mail sent or will forfeit the prize and another winner drawn.
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