Civil War Ghosts of Virginia

Mr. Taylor has written several ghost books but this is the first of his works that I have had the pleasure to read. His writing style is quite good and this is an easy and enjoyable read. There are some typos but that is the fault of the editor, not the author. This is not a particularly chilling book but it is fun nonetheless. Several of the ghost stories to be found in this book are very good. They contain recent eyewitness accounts and are well documented. On the other hand, Mr. Taylor falls into the trap that snares many authors of civil war ghost books. In short, he gets caught up in the history of the place where his story takes place and almost forgets the ghost. The story of the Stone House at Manassas is very good for example and the story of Jefferson Davis' son Joe is both eerie and touching. On the other hand the story about Belle Boyd is fairly long and only the last paragraph mentions a ghost while the story of the Escape from the Grave contains no ghost at all. I get the feeling from his introduction and a few of his chapters that the author might have had several good ghost stories and was badly in need of filler material. Quite frankly, the book would have been much better if he had produced a shorter but more true to its title book.Still, this is a book that would interest both those who like good ghost stories and also civil war buffs. The author even manages to sneak some Gettysburg ghost stories in and even though Gettysburg is not in Virginia I am always ready to read new ghostly encounters from that little Pennsylvania town. This is a book you definitely want to read before taking a vacation in Old Virginia.