Karen Novak

I saw this book on a lot of lists for the R.I.P. reading challenge held every year over at Stainless Steel Droppings. My library didn't have a copy which made me want to read it even more. One day I was wandering Goodwill and there it was on the shelf! I thought it was serendipity! On further reflection I should have pondered that there was probably a good reason why the library didn't carry it and that it was cast off to the thrift store. Anyway I saved this book to read for this years show more R.I.P challenge which champions spooky reads.

In this novel we find disgraced cop and mother Leslie Stone who needs to find a new occupation after she shoots a child molester whose nastiness she has just witnessed in a hotel room. She relocates to Wellington with her two daughters and husband Greg who has just been hired by a wealthy couple to rehab Five Mile House. Leslie is a haunted woman before she even steps foot in Five Mile House but that is where her problems really begin. It turns out that Leslie is a dead ringer for Eleanor Bly, a former occupant of Five Mile House who just happened to murder all of her children there. Or did she? Isabel and Leslie's story intertwine throughout the book until the conclusion which is a bunch of hooey about something called Analecta which is the house itself. What is Analecta you might ask? Okay, hold on tight it's.....the final digit in the never ending number pi. Yes, the big bad scary in Five Mile House is a math equation. If only you know what the final number of pi is you will have achieved ultimate reality and the path to perfection, whatever that is. That is where the book lost me. I expected a least a little horror and spook instead I get a boring math equation. To make matters worse, Leslie is a totally unlikeable character. She carries on an affair like she's doing a load of laundry. Diana, the woman who is having the house remodeled is a pot head who has an unhealthy attachment to her son, as in she insists that they sleep together every night. When I found out what the Analecta was I was so disappointed that I put this book down and didn't pick it up for two weeks. It was through sheer force of will that I finished the last few pages. That never happens to me. The end is usually the most exciting, can't put down part of a book. The most like able part of the book for me was Eleanor's story. Poor Eleanor is being tortured and driven crazy by her cad of a husband and hell spawn sister in law. Now a days a woman could just get a divorce but it is easy to see that in Elanor's time, she didn't have a choice but to stick it out with her psycho family. Eleanor was much more sympathetic than Leslie.

The bottom line is that I went into this book really wanting to like it and was disappointed. Somewhere the story line got off the supernatural track and into I don't know what. Add to that some unlikeable characters that engage in despicable behavior and there is not too much to enjoy here. There are much better haunted house stories out there to spend your time on. Back to Goodwill you go! show less

If there were a "three and a half stars" option I'd go with that for this spooky book. The resolution was a tad unsatisfying, but I enjoyed the ride. I wish I were half as gifted at writing reviews as Karen Novak is at weaving a good tale.

If there were a "three and a half stars" option I'd go with that for this spooky book. The resolution was a tad unsatisfying, but I enjoyed the ride. I wish I were half as gifted at writing reviews as Karen Novak is at weaving a good tale.

Leslie Stone is a cop with two little girls & a husband who one day comes across a crime scene where a 4 year old has been brutally murdered. The police catch the guy they think is the perpetrator and take him to a holding cell at the station. Leslie goes to talk to him, telling her bosses she wants to try to make him talk, and shoots him. She is arrested, put on trial, and goes to a mental hospital until the doctors think it's okay for her to be out.

Meantime, her husband is a home restorer show more and gets an offer to come to a small town called Wellington, where a group of interested townspeople are trying to restore Five Mile House, long ago the scene of a tragic crime in which Eleanor Bly murdered all of her children at one time. Eleanor now haunts Five Mile House, waiting for someone to whom she can tell her story.

When Leslie is released, her husband feels that having the family move to the small town of Wellington will be perfect for them...they can all make a new start. Leslie starts to make friends then starts researching Five Mile House & Eleanor Bly & her family. But her attempt to find answers is often met with reticence and silence from townspeople, drawing her more deeply into the town's secrets.

Toward the end, Eleanor Bly's own story and the story of Leslie become intertwined & lead to a satisfying end.

This is a story of wicca, covens, hauntings, sacrifice & loss. For a first book, the author did a marvelous job. I would recommend it to those who are into ghost stories & stories of secrets of the past. It won't take long to read because it moves very very quickly.

I can't wait for the next book by Novak. show less