Ghouls Gone Wild

Table of Contents

 

 

“M.J.’s back and reluctantly ready for her close-up in the latest funny, yet chilling, adventure by gifted storyteller Laurie. . . . Goose bumps and ghosts are plentiful in this creepy, utterly entertaining murder mystery.”

—
Romantic Times
(4½ stars)

 

“[A] fun, suspenseful, fast-paced paranormal mystery. All the elements combine to make this entry in the Ghost Hunter series a winner.”

—The Romance Readers Connection

 

“A hair-raising tale that will keep readers engrossed in the ghost-driven action.
Ghouls Just Haunt to Have Fun
has as much dark and danger-filled action as ever, and introduces a wonderful new character that readers will be hoping to see more of in the future. This is a must read in the series!”

—Darque Reviews

 

“A lighthearted, humorous haunted hotel horror thriller kept focused by ‘graveyard’ serious M.J.”

—Genre Go Round Reviews

 

“Ms. Laurie has penned a fabulous read and packed it with ghost-hunting action at its best. With a chilling mystery, a danger-filled investigation, a bit of romance, and a wonderful dose of humor, there’s little chance that readers will be able to set this book down.”

—Darque Reviews

 

“M.J.’s first-person worldview is both unique and enticing. With truly likable characters, plenty of chills, and even a hint of romance, real-life psychic Laurie guarantees that readers are in for a spooktacularly thrilling ride.”

—
Romantic Times
(4½ stars)

“A bewitching book blessed with many blithe spirits. Will leave you breathless.”

—Nancy Martin, author of the Blackbird Sisters Mysteries

 

“Laurie’s new sleuth, M. J. Holliday, is a winner. . . . Laurie makes everything that her characters do ring true, which can be a feat in a paranormal story. This highly entertaining book has humor and wit to spare.”

—
Romantic Times

 

“Victoria Laurie has crafted a fantastic tale in . . . [her] latest Psychic Eye Mystery. There are few things in life that upset Abby Cooper, but ghosts and her parents feature high on her list . . . giving the reader a few real frights and a lot of laughs. . . .”

—Fresh Fiction

 

“Fabulous. . . . Fans will highly praise this fine ghostly murder mystery.”

—The Best Reviews

 

“A great new series . . . plenty of action.”

 

“An invigorating entry into the cozy mystery realm. . . . I cannot wait for the next book.”

—Roundtable Reviews

 

“A fresh, exciting addition to the amateur sleuth genre.”

—J. A. Konrath, author of
Dirty Martini

 

“Worth reading over and over again.”

—Bookviews

The Ghost Hunter Mystery Series

 

The Psychic Eye Mystery Series

 

OBSIDIAN
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First published by Obsidian, an imprint of New American Library,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

First Printing, March 2010

Copyright © Victoria Laurie, 2010 All rights reserved

eISBN : 978-1-101-18558-2

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For my cousin, Hilary Laurie,
the funnier half of the Tee-Vee Variety Show

 

 

 

Most of my novels are inspired by some paranormal event that I’ve personally experienced or heard about and this particular story is no exception.

About four years ago I had the scariest and most “real” dream I can ever recall. I vividly remember being in a cold, damp house that was rapidly decaying. The walls were gray and crumbling, the floor was littered with debris, and the atmosphere was so oppressive it felt claustrophobic.

I don’t quite remember the beginning of that dream—how I came to be in that exact spot—but I do remember my sense of panic. I knew I had to get a mother and her two children out of that house, but they were hidden away in a room that I couldn’t find. I could hear them, though—the laughter of the children at play, and their mother’s voice in the background—and my panic worsened.

About the time that I finally found the door to the room they were in, someone came into the hallway where I was. It was a woman and evil wafted off her in thick heavy waves. I remember being acutely afraid of her, and I shouted in alarm for her to leave the children alone. I know she thought very little of my efforts to warn them; in fact, I knew intuitively that she thought very little of me in general.

And her presence only made my own panic mount. The mother and her children seemed completely unaware of her presence and I just
knew
the little ones were in danger.

But I wasn’t able to warn them—because in the next instant, I woke up. It was the middle of the night and my heart was still racing from the dream. I can remember thinking, “That was bizarre!” and I probably chalked the whole thing up to the bean burrito I’d had for dinner. But the dream lingered in my thoughts, and I never really did get back to sleep.

The next night I was watching one of my favorite shows—
Most Haunted
. It comes on Friday nights usually around ten p.m. and it is one spooky hour, let me tell you! The premise of the show is that a team of British paranormal investigators travel around Britain to the most haunted locations they can find and document anything that’s willing to go bump in the night on camera.

This particular episode was a two parter—I’d missed the previous show, but they ran a few clips of what had taken place. The team was at a remote farm and there were two separate buildings that they were investigating. One was an old crumbling barnlike structure; the other was an abandoned house. A family lived in another house nearby—a father, a mother, and their two young daughters—and they were quite frightened by the negative energy that seemed to permeate the two crumbling buildings and the surrounding grounds.

The night I tuned in, the team was investigating the abandoned house. The barn was said to have been the place where a coven of witches killed the small children they’d kidnapped from the surrounding countryside. The head of their coven was said to be a particularly evil and cruel woman, and it was thought she liked to torture the children before she sacrificed them.

I remember a shivery chill going up my spine as the clips of the previous night’s investigation rolled across the TV screen—but that was nothing to what I felt the moment the
Most Haunted
team entered the abandoned house. The camera zoomed in on the crumbling gray walls, the debris-littered floors, and the claustrophobic feel that permeated the place.

I remember staring wide-eyed at the television—not believing what I was actually seeing. It was an
exact
replica of the house I’d been trapped inside the night before in my dream!

I then quickly muted the TV and called my close friend (and agent) Jim. I explained everything that had happened to me in the dream the previous night and how I was looking at the very same location on the television as in my dream. “What should I do?” I asked him, pacing the floor and eyeing the screen nervously.

“I know exactly what you should do,” he said with confidence.

“What?”