Killing Ghost
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- $3.99
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
James Hastings once enjoyed a lucrative career pretending to be someone else. But when his wife Stacey dies tragically behind their Los Angeles mansion, James finds himself alone, spiraling into grief, and haunted by a familiar menace that is not ready for him to move on.
Salvation comes in the form of Annette Copeland, a beautiful widow who moves into the house next door. James and Annette bond quickly over their losses, but soon Annette begins to exhibit uncanny manners that belong to Stacey, setting off a horrific yet alluring case of possession.
James and his unstable companion return to the deserted gated community of Sheltering Palms, where his investigations unwillingly draw the attentions of two dangerous personalities: Rick Butterfield, a delusional policeman who knows Annette’s history and still pines for her; and Aaron, a 10-year-old boy who wanders the desolate subdivision nightly, waiting for his parents to come home.
With every attempt to atone for his failings as a husband plunging James deeper into a nightmare struggle for survival, he must finally confront the ghost of the man he used to be, the origin of his resurrected other half, and the true face of the evil that has brought them together.
Killing Ghost is at once a descent into psychological terror, a midnight meditation of the addictive nature of love, and a novel that redefines the ghost story for a culture obsessed with dark entertainments.
About the Author:
Christopher Ransom is the author of the internationally bestselling novels The Birthing House, Killing Ghost: The Haunting of James Hastings, and The People Next Door, and his most recent novel, The Fading. After studying literature at Colorado State University and managing an international business importing exotic reptiles, he worked at Entertainment Weekly magazine in New York, various now deceased technology firms in Los Angeles, and as a copywriter at Famous Footwear in Madison, Wisconsin. Christopher now lives near his hometown of Boulder, Colorado.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ransom (The Birthing House) imagines a shadowy and convoluted tale of obsession, identity, and possession, published in the U.K. as The Haunting of James Hastings. James Hastings is traumatized when his wife, Stacey, is killed in a hit-and-run outside his house while he's inside sleeping off a stint working as a body double for provocative rap star Ghost. A year later, during an alcoholic haze, James sees Stacey alive in his neighbor's house. As James tumbles down the rabbit hole, beautiful Annette Copeland, who looks eerily like Stacey, scams her way into his life. Soon Annette morphs into Stacey and Hastings morphs into Ghost against the background of violent, misogynistic Ghost lyrics. The tension is hampered by uneven pacing, unsympathetic characters, and distracting descriptions of scenery. Readers looking for spine tingles won't find them here, but they may be intrigued by the tortured inner dynamics of a shattered man.
