The Right Book at the Right Time

Title: Night Strangers

Author: Chris Bohjalian

Publisher: Crown, 2011

Summary: The beginning of Chris Bohjalian’s latest book is riveting.  It had me gasping for breath as I read about Chip Linton, a seasoned pilot, who had to ditch his jet in Lake Champlain after jamming into a flock of geese.  The normalcy of being seat belted into a chair and the next minute hitting the water and going under is frightening.  The body count, thirty nine deaths.

Chip, his wife (a lawyer) and their twin ten-year old girls move to New Hampshire in the hope that they can rebuild their lives.  However, in a musty dirt floor basement in the corner of the room sits a door that has long been sealed with 39 six-inch-long carriage bolts.  39 bolts, 39 deaths on the plane. It only gets spookier from there.

This novel is for sure a psychological thriller but it’s also a domestic drama and the story of a family coping with the aftermath of a horrible catastrophe.

The ghost story develops when Chip begins to see some of the dead from the plane crash, but there are also herbalists aka witches who play a huge part in the demise of this family.  As you read through you begin to build your own dread on what is going to take place.  The ghosts know exactly what they want and Chip is beginning to understand what he must do to help them.  Meanwhile you begin to understand that this cult of women, in this tiny town, is definitely moving this plot into a not so happy ending.  They are a strong and fearful group to reckon with and Chip and Emily’s twins will play an important role in their desires.

I haven’t read a ghost story in a long in a while but I really enjoyed this one.

Recommended by: Nancy, Deputy Town Librarian

Who will like this book?: Those who are already fans of Bohjalian, or those who enjoy psychological fast-paced thrillers

If you like this, try this: Other Bohjalian books, or other psychological thriller authors such as John Sanford or Jeffrey Deaver

Does this look like something you’d like to read? Visit the Fairfield Public Library catalog to put a hold or check availability!

Title: The Diviner’s Tale

Author: Bradford Morrow

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, January 2011

Summary: Cassandra Brooks wants an interesting but ordinary life, but her gifts of divining and fore-vision are getting in the way. As a child, Cassandra was taught the art of divining by her father Nep, who was taught by his father, who was taught by his father and so on. She was soon able to divine the future as well, being able to predict future events even as a small child. The power of these visions was tragically demonstrated when her older brother, Christopher, failed to heed her warning and was killed in an accident.
As an adult, Cassandra is a part time teacher and lives a simple life with her twin boys, Morgan and Jonah. While dowsing for water for a new development, Cass discovers a young girl hanged from a tree. She must leave the area in order to call the police, who then scour the area but cannot find any trace of the girl. Cassandra’s integrity is questioned until the police find a young girl, Laura Bryant, very much alive but dazed and disheveled and living in a makeshift hovel. Credited with leading authorities to Laura, Cass regains her reputation, shaky as it was, but continues to be plagued by visions of the young girl she saw hanging in the woods. When Cassandra begins to receive threatening letters and confusing visions, she is forced to revisit an event from her childhood that she has kept hidden for years.
A different kind of ghost story, “The Diviner’s Tale” begins at a leisurely pace, allowing you to really get to know Cassandra and her family. The story gradually picks up speed until you find yourself flying through the pages to find out exactly who is haunting Cassandra. Fun read, not scary but definitely creepy.

Who Might Like This?: Readers who like a few ghosts with their mystery.

Recommended by: Sue B, Circulation Coordinator

Does this look like something you’d be interested in? Click here to visit our catalog and place a hold or check availability

Title: So Cold the River

Author:  Michael Koryta

Publisher: Little, Brown, and Company, June 2010

Summary: Once a highly sought after cinematographer, Eric Shaw’s film career is in a downward spiral. He shouldn’t be surprised-punching a famous director in the face will often have that effect. Eric’s personal life isn’t faring much better. He walked out on his wife Claire when he began to feel that she and her father were starting to think of him as a failure. Eric’s gift has always been his innate sense of knowing which pictures or footage would move the audience. His new career is using that gift to make personal memorial videos for funerals, weddings, and other occasions. When the sister of a woman memorialized in one of his videos offers to hire Eric to make a video about her dying father in law, Campbell Bradford, Eric agrees. Armed with his camera and a curious bottle of vintage mineral water that belonged to Bradford, Eric travels to French Lick, Indiana, to begin his project. What he finds there contradicts all he was previously told about Campbell Bradford. This and the fact that the bottle of mineral water he’s been carrying around keeps getting colder and colder to the touch, even as the temperature around him rises, should have been enough to convince Eric that he was heading toward danger. But, alas, Eric plunges ahead and ends up in a fight to save his life and his very soul. This is a fast paced, action packed supernatural thriller with great characters and a very clever plot. I enjoyed this from cover to cover.

Who will like this book? Supernatural and thriller readers.

Recommended by: Sue, Circulation Coordinator

Title: The Tale of Halcyon Crane

Author:  Wendy Webb

Publisher: Holt, Henry & Company, Inc.,  March 2010

Summary: Hallie James has lived her life believing that her mother Madlyn was killed in a fire when Hallie was a small child. Now 35 years old, Hallie is dealing with her divorce and her father’s terminal illness. When she receives an envelope in the mail, she is shocked to find it contains a letter from her mother. As it turns out, Madlyn has lived the last 30 years believing that Hallie and her father were killed in a kayaking accident on the lake. The letter from Madlyn is accompanied by a letter from her attorney breaking the news that Madlyn has recently passed away. In order to find out why her father went to such lengths to keep her from her mother, Hallie travels to her mother’s home on Grand Manitou, a remote island in the Great Lakes. It isn’t long before Hallie realizes that something supernatural inhabits the mansion and grounds which she has just inherited.

  The Tale of Halcyon Crane is an unnerving ghost story that’s setting on a secluded island makes it even creepier.

Who will like this book? Ghost story aficionados.

Recommended by: Sue, Circulation Coordinator

Title: Hold My Hand

Author:  Serena Mackesy

Publisher: Constable, October 2008

Summary: All Bridget wants is a safe place to raise her daughter Yasmin. The flat they share in London has become a prison instead of a home. Though Bridget has divorced her abusive husband and the court has ordered Kieran to stay away, he continues to stalk the two vowing to make Bridget pay for leaving him. Bridget struggles to keep a roof over their heads and food on their table as fear and desperation set in. The hope for a new and better life for Bridget and Yasmin comes in the form of a job offer. Bridget is offered the job of housekeeper at Rospetroc, a manor house in a part of the country where no one will know them- where they will be safe. Rospetroc, however, has it’s own secrets and it’s own brutal history. The villagers have their suspicions as to why there is such a high turnover rate for housekeepers at Rospetroc. Bridget has run out of options and must stay at the manor house, even though the move now seems like a dangerous mistake.

Who will like this book?  Anyone who likes ghost stories and a bit of mystery.

Recommended by: Sue, Circulation Coordinator

Title: Ghost - a Novel

Author: Alan Lightman

Summary: What happens when an ordinary person experiences something truly extra-ordinary? In the case of David Kurzweil, his life is completely turned upside down. This is a fascinating story about a man struggling with some fairly typical mid-life issues (divorce, career change, etc.), who unexpectedly finds himself in the middle of a scientific and metaphysical controversy after he witnesses something paranormal in the funeral home where he works. David’s effort to understand what he has seen takes him on an emotional journey that will change his relationships, his beliefs, and his place in the world forever.

Author and physicist Alan Lightman writes with sensitivity and compassion, gently suggesting that there just might be a world that exists beyond the material one, a world “felt only in brief, fleeting stabs.”

Who will like this book: Anyone who was a fan of the TV show “Six Feet Under.”

Recommended by: Mary, Reference Librarian