The Haunting Season by Bridget Collins, Natasha Pulley, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Elizabeth Macneal, Laura Purcell, Andrew Michael Hurley, Jess Kidd, Imogen Hermes Gowar

 

What is your favorite ghost story, novel, or movie?

 The Haunting Season was the perfect book to read over Halloween weekend.  I meant to post this review last weekend, but the weekend got away from me!

 The Haunting Season is “eight ghostly tales for long winter nights.”  I loved them.  Most of the stories were set in the past, in particular, Victorian times, but there were also some modern stories.  They were very spooky and inspired by telling spooky stories around a fire in winter.  They are very atmospheric type of old-fashioned stories and I enjoyed them.

 My favorite stories in the collection were:

  ‘A Study in Black and White’ by Bridget Collins which is a story about a man coming to a village and seeing a mysterious house with a chess theme to the gardening.  He decides to rent it and soon finds out that the chess loving former owner may still be around.

 ‘Thwaite’s Tenant’ by Imogen Hermes Gowar is the story of a woman who has taken her son and left her cheating husband.  She soon discovers that leaving with her father may not have been a good idea.

 ‘Lily Wilt’ by Jess Kidd tells the tale of a photographer that falls in love with the dead girl who he has been sent to take pictures.  What will he do to bring her back?

 ‘The Chillingham Chair’ by Laura Purcell is the story of a girl in a wheelchair getting ready to celebrate the wedding of her sister.  She soon starts to realize that the wheelchair may be haunted, and that her sister’s fiancé may have secrets of his own.

 ‘The Hanging of the Greens’ by Andrew Michael Hurley is a spooky story that involves Christmas holly in a way I’ve never heard from before.  I liked how the story was told in a unique way.

 My least favorite story was ‘The Eel Singers’ by Natasha Pulley.  I had a hard time figuring out what was happening in this story.  I looked it up and saw that in involves characters from other books she’s written.  If you like her books, then this story is for you.  Otherwise, not really.

 Overall, The Haunting Season is the perfect book of spooky stories to read by the fire.

 Book Source:  Review Copy from Pegasus Crime.  Thank-you!