The Siren and the Specter

August 1, 2018
David Caine, author, professor, and famous paranormal skeptic, is invited to spend a month in the most haunted house in America. Built in the 1700s, the Alexander House has a gruesome history, and David has been asked to pass his expert judgment on the years of ghostly sightings and ghastly occurrences. But this job brings him dangerously close to the source of his own personal haunting, the death of his college sweetheart. From the unsettling opening lines, it is clear that this is no ordinary haunted house tale. Janz (Children of the Dark, 2016) twists such conventions as lost love and the cursed town in original and terrifying ways. The tension builds throughout, and the fear and repulsion are relayed through all five senses, threatening to never let go. Janz is emerging as one of the most talented horror authors of his generation, and his newest novel will be eagerly scooped up by fans of haunted house stories like The Handyman (2017) by Bentley Little, The Damned (2015) by Andrew Pyper, and Hex? (2016) by Thomas Olde Heuvelt.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)