The Séance

I could not find one thing that I disliked about this book. It captured my attention from go and kept it. I didn't put it down until it was finished. Ghost Walk, and Haunted are still my favorites, but this is another excellent book.

This is a great book! Loved the romance in it as well as the paranormal experiences!! Great mystery in it too! I love Heather Graham's paranormal type books as well as other romance ones. I would recommend this book!!

Christy (who is Irish) has "the gift". Not to be cliched as in other "gift" books or movies, it really plays a minor role in the story. One ghost (unless you count when the granda dies) and one seance so I was surprised when finished that the book was actually titled "The Seance" when there was such little to do with it. This is more of a whodunit style rather than a supernatural feel. It was a great read however and I can't help but wonder what theme parks she is referring to with all the extra halloween activities (Universal Orlando?) that her relatives work for. The story basically follows the path of proving an officers (now deceased) innocence after the fact when the "interstate killings" begin to happen again with too much detail close to the original killings for it to be a copycat killer. Enter Jed, the famous author of the "fictional" writing of the interstate killer that really condemmed the fallen officer as the killer when in fact, you guessed it, there's a twist. Great read, some fantastic characters brought in at the end but not really used as well as they could have been. Adam could have been used allot more in my opinion. Anyway, that's just my take. A book well worth the read. db

The Séance By Heather Graham To start, I just have to say - what an awesome story! I loved it and had a very hard time putting the book down. Toward the end, I raced through the remaining pages to see how the ending was going to be played out, and was not disappointed in the least! What would you think or how would you feel if someone, who was suppose to be dead, suddenly appeared before you asking for help? That's what Christina Hardy has to come to terms with. After her Grandmother passes away, she moves into her Grandparent's house. At her housewarming party, an old Ouija board is brought out and the ghost of Beau Kidd, who was believed to be the "Interstate Killer", soon shows himself to Christina. Beau, an officer of the law, was shot and killed one night fifteen years ago, by his partner, while bent over the final victim in the killings. Everyone believed that the murderer had been caught and the killings did indeed stop. Fifteen years later, however, the killings once again start. They are identical to the "Interstate Killings" that had taken place years ago. The police force have to figure out if they have a copycat killer on their hands or if Beau was indeed innocent and not the killer they thought him to be. Soon, Christina finally acknowledges Beau and the fact that she can indeed see and communicate with his ghost. Throughout this time, a romance begins to blossom between Christina and an old childhood friend, Jed. Jed, however, has no belief in ghosts or anything paranormal. After doing follow-ups on comments that Christina makes about the killings and about Beau himself, he begins to wonder how she came up with such intimate details of the case. Could he really believe that Christina is communicating with a ghost? As the time ticks away and bodies begin to pile up, Christina's life becomes endangered and time is running out. Will the killer be discovered in time? Or will it be too late? Full of suspense and the paranormal, The Séance is an excellent read for anyone wanting a great story. With a bit of romance thrown in for good measure, this is a perfect novel. The ending does indeed hold surprises and will bring about great satisfaction. I highly recommend The Séance to everyone and cannot wait to read more by this wonderful and talented author.

The story begins when Christina (Christie) Hardy is twelve and she wakes up in the middle of the night to her Granda sitting in a chair in her room smoking his pipe and talking to her. He tells her to be good to her Grandma and make sure she tells her that he loved her. He also tells Christie she has the "gift" of sight and to guard her gift and be careful what "doors" she opens. He tells her he needs to go now and is going to a place that is beautiful. In the morning, she wakes up to hear people in the parlor crying. Christie goes downstairs and find out that her Gran woke up to find Granda cold and dead beside her so they have called the ambulance and police. Christie tells her parents and Gran about what Granda said but they just ignore her until her mom walks her up to her bedroom to get her slippers. Her mom smells his tobacco, pales and walks out. A few days later at the funeral, Christie sees across the way and man and woman crying hard and take a rose to put on that grave. She also saw her Granda again at this funeral but he just winks. Fifteen years later, Jed Braden, former homicide cop turned author, is in an autopsy room. The body of a young woman with long red hair has been discovered by the highway and it is just like a series of murder that happened 15 years before. Only the police thought 15 years ago that the killer had been caught and killed by his police partner. Beau Kidd had been the lead detective on Interstate Killer murders when he called his partner who saw him holding the body of the latest victim. Beau had pulled his gun and thus his partner pulled his and killed him. Jed Braden wrote a fictionalized and thinly disguised account of the murders. Now the police wonder if they have a copycat or what? Jed Braden starts wondering too. In the meantime, Christina Hardy has inherited her grandparents' home as her Gran has passed on and she has moved in and is having a housewarming party. Her friend Ana see a Ouija board and decides to have them all use it and the board is saying "Help me. Please help me." No one knows why. Later that night after Christina's cousins, next door neighbor and his fiance, Ana and Ana's cousin Jed Braden have gone home, Christina finds herself spooked. She wakes up to see someone sitting in the chair in her room and when he talks to her saying "Please help me." She panics and runs outside and passes out on the lawn. Jed finds her there the next morning. He obviously thinks she is just having trouble coping with grief. Christina has always liked Jed and doesn't want him to think she is crazy but how does she explain sleeping on the lawn? The mystery progresses with plenty of plot twists and turns plus some romance. I really liked how the author spent time developing each of the characters that are close to her and that could be potential victims or killers. Great story. Highly recommended. Review by Valerie Matteson