Book Impressions - The Graveyard Speaks by Hunter Shea

The Graveyard Speaks is a short novella about a young woman who hunts ghosts. She learns of a ghost that is appearing by a specific grave every night and investigates it. It's well written, but has a few issues.

The first is that it feels a bit rushed. There's lots of interesting backstory that is only mentioned in passing. Now I'm sure that more is reavealed as more stories are released, but it felt like a lot of what made the character interesting is glossed over.

It also felt too easy. There was no real peril (except for one excellent moment) where you felt that maybe she was in any real danger. She never really had to struggle in any way, everything she needed was conveniently provided for her. I felt that she needed to work at the situation more to be satisfying.

My other issue was that the book ended abruptly. It finishes then hints at the next case and then ends. At 75% of the book. A quarter of the book was devoted to advertising other stories and the author. Now don't get me wrong authors have to make a living so some advertisement at the end of the book is expected, but not to the extent that it occupies a quarter of the book. Anyway, it's a pet peeve of mine, but I haven't factored it in to the score.

Overall it's a fun read read, the ghost is well done and I enjoyed the interactions between it and the main character, but it's also a bit of a disappointment, it could have been so much more.

"Some secrets can t stay buried. "

Deep in a dark, snow-covered cemetery, a terrifying, moaning apparition rises from the same grave night after night. Even the most hardened caretakers won t go near the Spooner gravestone on their midnight rounds. Only one ghost hunter has the will to face the unknown, but at what price? In the chilling blackness, only Jessica Backman is prepared to answer the spectral cry from beyond when the graveyard speaks.

The Graveyard Speaks is available from Amazon