Review: A Well Written Ghostly Trilogy
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 11, 2012
Kath Russell has written a very entertaining short story trilogy, with interwovan themes of crime, small town (or college) dynamics and, quite possibly, ghosts. She is excellent at pulling the reader into the scene. In the third tale, "The Ghost of Lyon Lodge," we witness a college dean's refusal to see truth when it is staring her in the face, and later, there is an attempted sexual assault. (I wanted to shout at the dean, and then give the assailant a kick where it would have done the most good.)The spectral presence is most interesting. As a New Englander, in the second story, "Ghost Of A Smile," I was fascinated by the tale of a tormented witch in Southern Maryland, just a few years after the events at Salem. And the evocation of John Wilkes Booth in the first story is well researched. Booth did lose a boot when Dr. Samuel Mudd treated him.A trace of confusion arose in the first story, when one character is referred to by his first name (Frasier) and his surname (Dutton)twice each, in the same paragraph. And I was intrigued  by the reference to the Point Lookout Lighthouse in Southern Maryland. This was the location of a notorious Northern Civil War camp where thousands of captured Confederate soldiers were kept after Gettysburg, and maltreated. I expected a spirit from one of the southern soldiers, but the spirit in this tale has nothing to do with that era.I received a complimentary review copy, and recommend this collection. It is entertaining, well drawn, and vivid.