Horribly Haunted Houses: True Ghost Stories

Melanie Marttila is a Sudbury-based freelance writer and writing
consultant.

The ghost stories in these three volumes are all the more haunting
because they derive from documented encounters.

Animal Phantoms contains stories on everything from a haunted fish tank
and a phantom pet cat to reincarnated pets and a poltergeist that takes
on the form of a talking mongoose. The transit-related spectres in Ghost
Riders include ghostly airplanes, buses, trains, ships, and cars. Robert
McCulloch’s purchase and reconstruction of the London Bridge is retold
because, along with the bridge, ghosts were brought to America. Smith
even retells the origin of the Jack-o’-Lantern, a miserly soul doomed
to be a ghostly pedestrian for eternity. Horribly Haunted Houses deals
with the White House hauntings, a haunted trailer, a house haunted by
the ghost of Bugsy Malone, the ever-eerie Amityville hauntings, the
Dakota (a famous haunted apartment building in New York), the Winchester
Mystery House, and haunted dollhouses, among other things.

Smith’s stories are well written, entertaining, and illustrated
simply and sparingly by Aaron Norell. All three books are recommended.