Haunted Highways: Ghost Stories and Strange Tales

Ryan M. Higgitt is a graduate student studying sociology (with an
interest in human-computer interaction and linguistics) at Concordia
University in Montreal.

Haunted Highways is a collection of short stories that chronicle the
strangest and most persistent paranormal phenomena occurring on
autoroutes the world over. While the stories are succinct, their
successful blend of colour and pragmatism make for a thoroughly engaging
telling. The author blunts audience skepticism by efficiently surveying
the archived documentation of the various tales. As a result, Haunted
Highways reads much like a pop-fiction novel and yet is infused with a
certain investigative integrity.

While most of the stories clearly play on the element of fear, a few of
them are more melodramatic or even romantic than they are scary. For
instance, in “The Elmore Bridge” (of Elmore, Ohio), the restless
spirit of a soldier searches for the love of his estranged sweetheart
who became engaged to another man while the soldier fought in the fields
of Europe; after returning from the war, the soldier dies in a tragic
motorcycle accident, resulting in the appearance of a mysterious light
that illuminates the night air. Canadian readers will also be interested
in the “Ghost Road” of Port Perry, Ontario, and the haunted
“Keenan Bridge” of Johnville, New Brunswick.