The Family Plot

Starred review from July 18, 2016
When Dahlia Dutton’s father sends her and a small crew to salvage a house near Lookout Mountain, Tenn., she finds that what you don’t know can hurt you in Priest’s spectacular modern haunted-house story. Dahlia is no stranger to ghosts, whether she’s being emotionally haunted by a failed marriage or by the metaphorical spirits that linger in old buildings. The concept of home salvage disturbing ghosts is brilliant, and while common elements of haunted house stories are certainly present (a mysterious owner with family secrets, locked rooms, unnatural storms, etc.), Priest (Boneshaker) handles them with tremendous skill, putting the pieces together to keep the reader guessing and more than a little scared. The characters are given a compelling reason to stay (the family business will fail if this job falls through) and their interpersonal dynamics humanize them, making them more than just cannon fodder as the hauntings increase in severity. Priest has written an excellent modern house story from start to finish. Agent: Jennifer Jackson, Donald Maass Literary.

July 15, 2016
A malicious ghost violently resists the destruction of her home in this stand-alone supernatural thriller.Music City Salvage risks bankruptcy by purchasing the rights to an old Tennessee mansion days before it's due to be razed to the ground. The owner, Augusta Withrow, perceptibly loathes the place...but why? As the salvage team--recently divorced Dahlia, daughter of Music City's owner; inexperienced grad student Brad; Dahlia's alcoholic, unreliable cousin Bobby; and Bobby's good-hearted son, Gabe--begin stripping the outbuildings of their valuables, it doesn't take long before they realize something is very wrong. Ms. Withrow claims that the small cemetery they stumble over is just an old Halloween prank, but there's at least one body buried there. And there's definitely more than one ghost haunting the place, including a small boy, a World War I soldier, an elegant older woman, and an extremely angry young woman with dangerous poltergeist powers. Will our heroes be able to dismantle the house while keeping themselves physically and mentally intact? The author (Chapelwood: The Borden Dispatches, 2015) dedicates her focus to character building and research on house salvaging, both of which are solid but not sufficient to retain the reader's interest over the long haul. There's not much plot and not enough shocks or surprises to be a really effective ghost story. The dark family secrets that the ghosts are concealing are very guessable and lack the lusciously twisted savor that gothic and horror lovers crave. Sad to say, it's almost dull.A novel as insubstantial as the ghosts who haunt it.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from September 15, 2016

When Dahlia Dutton pulls up to the Withrow mansion, she can imagine how gorgeous it once was. Heiress Augusta Withrow wants nothing more than to sell the salvage rights so that the house can be torn down, making it an irresistible opportunity for Dahlia's father, owner of Music City Salvage. He sends Dahlia out to manage the job, saddling her with her frequently drunk, always unreliable cousin Bobby, Bobby's son Gabe, and summer helper and grad student Brad. None of them are prepared for the malevolent presence that inhabits the house, as they race to salvage enough to keep their business afloat before the resident ghost escalates her attacks. VERDICT Priest (Boneshaker; Four and Twenty Blackbirds) has created an irresistible mix of horror and home improvement, with plenty of riveting details about the work of salvage operators as well as genuinely scary horror action. The difficult relationship between Dahlia and her cousin rings true, adding human drama to the mix. [See Eric Norton's SF/Fantasy Genre Spotlight, "Imagined Multiverses," LJ 8/16.--Ed.]--MM

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.