Banshees, Bugles and Belles: True Ghost Stories of Georgia

For the reader who loves ghost stories that are well written and informative this is a book you will want to add to your library. Barbara Duffey has put together a nice collection of peach state haunts. She has researched the material and has apparently been to most of the sites. Her writing style is very nice and keeps the reader interested throughout the book. Best of all, at the end of each story she tells you the address of the haunted site and whether or not it is open to the public. Just in case the reader would like to do a little ghost hunting themselves.Any decent book of southern ghost tales has to include certain stories, and they are all here. Southern Belles mourning for eternity loved ones lost in the war, mistreated slaves, confederate soldiers, and homes that survived Sherman by some quirk of fate. Jefferson Davis even manages a cameo. As a nice little extra there is a story about the ghost of Marion Stembridge and if you don't recognize the name just rent the movie Paris Trout. The only real drawback to this book is what I would call it's chill rating. The stories are engrossing but they just don't send a chill up your spine and cause you to have trouble sleeping. In Duffey's defense, very few ghost books do accomplish much on the chill scale and while this book won't scare you, it will entertain you.