Patricia S. (patsto) reviewed on 10/27/2005 + 33 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 4

Readers intrigued by the supernatural and eager to spend some quality time with ghosts may be tempted to pick up Frances Kermeen's Ghostly Encounters: True Stories of America's Haunted Inns and Hotels, but this "guide" offers little that hasn't been covered more eloquently elsewhere. From floating, disembodied torsos to menacing, Chucky-like dolls, Kermeen, the former owner of a haunted antebellum mansion, has ostensibly seen and heard it all either firsthand or secondhand through other innkeepers and their guests. However, her clunky, cliche-ridden writing often mars the narration of these "sightings." When relaying one of her earliest encounters, for example, Kermeen writes: "In an instant, the room turned icy cold, and I felt terror in the air."

When Frances Kermeen bought The Myrtles Plantation of St. Francisville, LA, in 1980, she did so with a dream of turning the historic site into a cozy inn. Before long, however, her intentions were thrown wildly off course when she discovered that the property was haunted. Surprisingly enough, business for Frances' haunted inn exploded: it seemed everyone wanted to stay in a haunted house. Since then, Frances Kermeen has traveled to over 150 haunted inns and hotels across America and collected some of the creepiest, most spine-tingling ghost stories imaginable from owners and visitors alike-and each one of them is true. For example:· No matter how many times the maids change the sheets in the Oatman Hotel, the distinct outline of a man, once murdered in the room, remains imprinted on the sheets.· If you see two little girls playing in the garden of The Myrtles Plantation, beware-they may be the often-seen ghosts of the little girls poisoned there in 1824!· Find out in which hotels unmarried women should not spend the night alone-unless they want to have a romantic rendezvous with a phantom lover.· Discover the best place to stay to witness a UFO sighting-and perhaps even have contact with an extra-terrestrial.Packed with chilling stories-and practical information for those who want to spend the night in a haunted house-GHOSTLY ENCOUNTERS is sure to haunt every reader who dares to read through its pages.

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