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Stronger Than Hate
Mississippi Wizards follows two women from different eras whose lives become intertwined through violence, grief, and the haunting presence of a persistent ghost named Nancy. Where did the idea behind this novel come from?
I’d had a few conversations with two of my closest friends, both of whom, unfortunately, have had experiences with some form of racial hatred or another, including with the KKK. I wanted to show just how broad those hate groups are in who they target, and I wondered what would happen if one of them targeted a family member, and what would happen if that person became a ghost. What lengths would they go to, if they could, to protect another family member? The idea just sort of expanded from there.
The novel combines supernatural horror with survival thriller elements and social issues. How did you balance those different genres and themes?
I’ve always been a firm believer that human monsters are far worse than the literary ones. Sometimes, they turn out like Billy- evil, hateful, and violent- but I also wanted to be careful to show that there are those of us in society who, though we may not consider them monsters, certainly succumb to bigotry, hate, and fear. To do so, I did extensive interviews with people who had real-life stories to offer. Though none of them exactly matched this story, I hope I was able to get the essential message across: Together, we are all stronger than hate.
Nancy is both frightening and deeply connected to the characters’ histories. How did you develop her personality and decide what kind of ghost she would be?
When I thought of Nancy, I considered what it would have been like for her to be betrayed in such a final, ultimate fashion. I wondered what she would do to keep someone else in her family from experiencing the same fate, and how frustrating it would be if her plans were foiled over and over again. I felt that, for anyone else, desperation and anger would play a key role, but that desperation would take precedence for Nancy, since she wasn’t a bitter person in life.
The final scene suggests that there may be another strange story waiting to unfold. Did you always envision Mississippi Wizards as potentially opening the door to another story?
Yes and no. When I first thought of this story, I loved the idea that Cassandra could see ghosts and help them, and I thought it would be cool to have her eventually transition into a role where she could help lay spirits to rest. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it would be the choice of the ghost to show itself to her, not the other way around. For that, there needs to be some type of connection. Without that, I didn’t think Cassandra or Liza would get into the proverbial ghost-hunting business, as neither of their personalities would match with that. They were forced into it; they didn’t choose it. If I ever write another story with Cassandra and Liza, it won’t likely be a ghost story.
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Two timelines, two women, one relentless spirit: Liza’s secret love and Cassandra’s haunted mind converge through Nancy, a ghost determined to rewrite a history of hatred and violence. As terror rises and mortal enemies close in, the women must join across time to survive, confront murderers, and reclaim the power stolen from them.
Mississippi Wizards is a gripping, spectral thriller of vengeance, courage, and the enduring strength of love against impossible odds.
Knight In Gale: Vengeance
Knight In Gale: Vengeance, by Michael H. Balfour, is a mystery thriller and the third book in the Dante Villehart series. The story follows Dante as he is pulled into a new murder case in Edenvale that carries the signature of the old “Knight In Gale” killings: dead nightingales, literary clues, staged crime scenes, and the uneasy feeling that the past has not stayed buried. What begins as a homicide investigation becomes something more personal, with Dante forced to face old mistakes, fresh danger, and the thin line between justice and vengeance.
I liked how the book leans into the mood of crime fiction without losing sight of Dante as a person. He is not just solving a puzzle. He is tired, haunted, sharp, and sometimes painfully aware of his own limits. That made the investigation feel more grounded to me. The book has the usual pleasures of the genre, including clues, suspects, grim discoveries, and tense confrontations, but its strongest moments often come in quieter scenes: Dante sitting with his guilt, noticing the shape of a room, or finding brief comfort in food, tea, and familiar faces. Those pauses matter. They give the darkness some texture.
Balfour’s writing is vivid and often atmospheric. The prose really wants you to feel the room: the chemical smell of a crime scene, the stale quiet of a diner, the strange theatricality of the killer’s clues. I appreciated that choice because the case itself is built around art, poetry, performance, and obsession, so the heightened style fits the material. This is a story about people turning pain into symbols, and symbols into weapons. The book is candid about how stories can be twisted, especially when murder becomes a spectacle.
I recommend Knight In Gale: Vengeance to readers who enjoy dark mystery thrillers with a literary edge, especially those who like damaged investigators, serial-killer puzzles, and crime stories that care as much about emotional aftermath as they do about the reveal. Fans of character-driven detective fiction will probably get the most from it, particularly if they already know Dante from the earlier books. It’s tense, moody, and reflective, with enough bite to satisfy genre readers and enough introspection to make the case feel personal.
Pages: 353 | ASIN : B0GD94F5Z3
Mirror Image (Bennett Auction Series)
Mirror Image, by Kay Brooks, opens the Bennett Auction Series with Abby Adams and TJ Bennett entering the secluded White house to prepare an estate auction, only to find a portrait that looks exactly like Abby, a restless ghost named Isabella, hidden family secrets, and a present-day killer circling Edmondsville. The book braids a haunted-house mystery, a slow-burn romance, and a serial-killer thread into a story where antiques, diaries, portraits, and old rooms become evidence rather than scenery.
I appreciated the way the house is presented as more than a setting. Brooks has a strong instinct for objects: Lladró figures, old furniture, sketchbooks, diaries, a missing vase, and the kind of heirlooms that seem to remember more than the living do. That auction-world texture gives the paranormal mystery a pleasing specificity. I also enjoyed Abby’s curiosity; she is not merely frightened by Isabella’s presence, but pulled toward her with compassion, which gives the ghost story an emotional hinge.
The romance between Abby and TJ has a familiar push-pull rhythm, sometimes heated, sometimes prickly, but it works best when their banter is interrupted by real danger or tenderness. The book is busy with ghosts, genealogy, murder, family business, romance, and a killer’s stalking presence, all of which compete for space, but that abundance gives it a pulpy, page-turning energy. I was especially drawn to the idea that history is not dead here; it is ambulatory, wounded, and occasionally mischievous.
This book is for readers who enjoy paranormal romantic suspense, small-town mystery, serial killer thrillers, and family secrets fiction. Fans of Heather Graham’s Krewe of Hunters novels may feel at home with the blend of romance, ghosts, investigation, and danger, though Brooks adds her own auction-house flavor. Mirror Image is a ghost story that feels old, mysterious, and alive.
Pages: 299 | ASIN : B0DYZPL83J
A Haunting Connection
A Haunting Connection opens with Ruth Jones in 1945, racing through wartime China and toward Japan under the shadow of psychic disturbances and her father’s possible corruption, but that opening functions less as the book’s destination than as its haunted fuse. The novel’s true body lives in 2025, chiefly in Lake Valley, Oregon, and Seoul, Korea, where Leah Davenport and Brandon Spencer are pulled into rival spiritual orbits: Leah’s powers deepen as her judgment frays, Brandon trains under the formidable Yoona while trying to remain morally intact, and Ruth, older, sharper, and vastly more dangerous, works behind the veil to recruit manipulators and bend world events toward a coerced peace. It’s a multi-POV paranormal fantasy with political ambitions, and it understands that a ghost story becomes more volatile when the dead are not the only things trying to possess the future.
I liked the way the book makes corruption feel incremental rather than theatrical. Leah is not simply “turning dark” in some ornamental fantasy sense; she is making one compromised choice after another, manipulating a boy to help Barb, carrying the consequences of a ghost attachment, intervening in Min Yun’s possession, absorbing dark energy in a desperate fight, and then beginning to press her will against the people around her. That slope is persuasive because it’s moral before it’s mystical. Brandon’s arc works as a counterweight. His sections have more bruised restraint: grief, caution, attraction, self-doubt, duty. I liked that his training under Yoona never settles into a clean mentor-student pattern. She is impressive, useful, strategic, and quietly terrifying. Her willingness to implant knowledge, manipulate minds, and justify ethically jagged actions gives the novel one of its best tensions: power here is never neutral, and wisdom is not the same thing as innocence.
I also appreciated how much narrative acreage the book claims, and how often that sprawl works in its favor. The Brandon–Su-Bin–Min Yun triangle could have stayed merely romantic intrigue, but it gets knotted into family violence, surveillance, revenge, and the uncanny. Leah’s visions reach across continents. Brandon gets drawn into a CIA-linked weapons operation that ends in a gun battle at the port. Ruth and Yoona are each recruiting, each planning, each interpreting the future through interference and incomplete knowledge. By the time the explosion in Lake Valley sends shockwaves through Yoona’s Circle and sparks a vision of Ruth striking Yoona down, the novel has widened from supernatural coming-of-age into something more combustible: a spiritual thriller about competing doctrines of order, control, and salvation.
I would hand this to readers of urban fantasy, paranormal fantasy, supernatural thriller, and multi-POV dark fantasy, especially those who like occult systems, psychic warfare, corruption arcs, and globe-spanning stakes. Readers who enjoy authors like V. E. Schwab, or series that let emotional damage and metaphysical conflict braid together, will find a strong current here, though this novel has a more conspiratorial and politically charged temperament than most of its peers. A Haunting Connection is a restless, high-voltage book about grief, influence, and the seduction of using power “for good.”
Pages: 495 | ASIN : B0GKGDN2C6
Freedom
Have You Heard This One Before is a lively mix of short stories that swing between mystery, humor, horror, sentiment, and quiet reflection. What was the inspiration for this collection of short stories?
There were many stories and topics I wanted to write about, but they didn’t merit the length of a novel. I enjoy the short story format, but realize that most published collections are centered on a theme or genre. I didn’t want to write under restrictions on my work, e.g., that it should be all horror stories. On the other hand, I understood that the appeal of a book with multiple genres would be difficult to market. Hopefully, there are readers out there who are open to fun, imaginative, funny, frightening tales, all in one collection.
What is it you enjoy about writing short stories over longer novel formats?
I love the opportunity to explore various types of stories. When people comment on my work as an author, I often tell them I’m more of a storyteller than an author. It’s fun to see if you can engage readers quickly and provide a quick read that entertains and, possibly, even makes a longer impression. You won’t find me writing romance novels anytime in the future, but I have written a romantic short story for this book. Some other tales are not substantive enough for a novel, but they are still worth exploring. Summing up the short stories’ appeal in one word, I’d say freedom.
What was the biggest challenge you faced in putting together this collection of stories?
Placement. What should come first? Should “The Loop Two” come right after “The Loop?” Where do I put my description of a romantic encounter? What do I end with? I also wanted to make sure the more whimsical stories didn’t feel out of place. The final order of the chapters involved a lot of thought. And to make it even more difficult, I kept coming up with new story ideas.
Do you have a favorite story in the book, and if so, why does it hold special meaning for you?
I have several that could qualify as favorites: “The Loop” and “The Loop Part Two,” “Drive,” “Hippity, Hoppity, Bang” (laugh out loud funny), and “Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone.” But my absolute favorite is “A Haunted Diary.” Many readers might find it too sentimental, but I believe the themes of kindness and returning home to relatives who have passed are universal. The final paragraph (spoiler alert) is one of my two favorites in the book (“Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone” is the other).
Dear Diary – November 15, 2019, Friday
This will be my last entry. About three weeks of journaling, just like Mae, oddly enough. I’m heading to the hospital in an hour, and I won’t be coming home. I said goodbye to Mae. I’m sure she heard me, just as I’m sure she’s gone from the house and is saying hello to Josh right now. I’m going to hide this diary somewhere it won’t be found, until it’s needed. Then, it can reveal itself. As I reread this entry, I should make one change. I won’t be coming back to this house again, but I will be going home. And Josh will be waiting to meet me there.
All of my books include examples of the importance of kindness, even in the face of difficulty. “A Haunting Diary” is no exception.
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A lighthouse that holds a spirit and his memory. A diary and haunting that links the past and present. A drive down a road that stretches longer than an ocean of dreams. Snowflakes drifting softly over a horrified snowbird in Orlando. A love story that snares two workaholics, and a horror that brings out a laugh and tears from our protagonist.
From tender to terrifying, whimsical to wicked, these stories linger long after the last page turns. Romance, regret, mystery, laughter, fear—and at least one tragedy involving the Easter Bunny!
Every story is a surprise.
Every surprise is unforgettable.
Find your favorite twist in “Have You Heard This One Before.”
Trail of Buried Evidence
In The Mourning Locket, an empath confronts the owner of a unique agency comprised of sentient heirlooms capable of remembering their owners and seeks to uncover its long-buried secrets. Where did the idea for this novel come from?
The idea started with my own family heirlooms. I grew up around old photographs, jewelry, keepsakes — things that didn’t look like much from the outside but held entire histories inside them. I always wondered what they’d “say” if they could talk.
When I started writing The Mourning Locket, it was my way of honoring those stories that get lost between generations. I wanted to capture that feeling of holding something that once meant everything to someone who isn’t here anymore. The book grew out of that love for family history and the questions we never get to ask the people we miss.
How did you go about capturing the thoughts of the heirlooms?
To write the heirlooms, I imagined them the way we imagine the stories behind things we inherit. When you hold something that belonged to someone you loved, you automatically think about what it meant to them.
That’s the energy I wrote from. Their thoughts come through impressions, not sentences — a heaviness, a chill, a warmth, a pull. The emotional tone of the object shows up long before the mystery does. It made them feel alive without ever stepping outside of realism.
Were you able to relate to your characters while writing them?
Absolutely. I related to my characters in different ways, sometimes in ways I didn’t even expect. Rowan’s determination, Piper’s anxious overthinking, Cassian’s quiet intensity — those all come from real emotions I understand. And then there’s Sable, whose sarcasm and perfectly timed humor felt like the pressure valve everyone needed.
I relate to her a lot — that instinct to lighten a tense moment, or to say the thing everyone else is only thinking. Writing her was almost like letting the honest, unfiltered side of myself onto the page.
Each character carries something human and familiar, and that connection made writing them feel less like creating fictional people and more like spending time with versions of myself and the people I love.
Can you give us a glimpse inside Book 2 of The Inheritance Bureau series? Where will it take readers?
Book 2, The Music Box from Ashford, drags the Bureau into its darkest investigation yet. What begins as a simple heirloom assessment turns into a trail of buried evidence, altered records, and a past that someone worked very hard to erase.
The music box at the center of it all isn’t just an antique — it’s a trigger. And once it resurfaces, everything the Bureau thought it understood about its own origins is shaken.
This book pulls readers deeper into the hidden corners of the Bureau: the cases that never made it into the official files, the mistakes no one was supposed to uncover, and the people who paid the price for trying. Rowan gets pulled into the heart of it, Piper and Sable uncover secrets that were never meant to see daylight, and Arden is forced to confront what leadership really costs.
The investigation reaches back more than a century, and the past refuses to stay quiet this time.
Without giving too much away — Book 2 opens a door the Bureau can’t close, and what waits on the other side changes everything heading into Book 3.
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Empathic appraiser Dr. Cassian Vale can feel a person’s final emotions through touch—an ability that makes him invaluable, and dangerous. Investigating an 1860s mourning locket, Cassian relives a woman’s death and uncovers a conspiracy linking grief, immortality, and bloodline control.
As the echoes grow louder, the team must decide whether to silence the past—or listen before it consumes them.
The Haunting of Wellsley Manor
Len Handeland’s The Haunting of Wellsley Manor is a gothic horror novel that follows William Martens, a young man seeking to escape the dead-end monotony of his hometown by attending Cornell University. But his aspirations are soon entangled in a series of ghostly encounters at his grandfather’s decaying estate in Ithaca. As he settles into his new life, William is haunted—literally and emotionally—by family secrets, unresolved trauma, and spectral figures that begin to cross the veil between the living and the dead. The deeper he digs into the house’s eerie history, the more he realizes that some legacies come with strings attached and blood on their hands.
I was drawn in from the very beginning. The dialogue felt natural and raw—sometimes even painfully real, especially during the tense moments between William and his bitter, emotionally distant father. There’s something incredibly satisfying about a story that doesn’t rush. The buildup is slow and deliberate, and that pacing works here. It lets you soak in the atmosphere—the creaking floors, the dusty corridors, the strained silences. The house itself becomes a character, and not just a spooky backdrop. What Handeland nails is the eerie tension between generational pride and inherited guilt. His prose has this honest, almost nostalgic warmth when depicting William’s relationship with his grandfather, Isaiah. Those moments hit me hard.
Sometimes the writing dipped into the overly descriptive, and while the story’s emotional arcs were compelling, the scares occasionally felt more atmospheric than truly chilling. I didn’t mind that too much—this is more The Sixth Sense than The Conjuring—but readers expecting non-stop frights may be left wanting. Still, the dream sequences and ghostly children were deeply unsettling in a quiet and lingering way. The mirror scenes especially gave me the kind of slow-building dread I love in horror fiction.
I’d recommend The Haunting of Wellsley Manor to anyone who enjoys a slower burn and emotionally rich storytelling. It’s a ghost story wrapped in a coming-of-age tale, laced with regret and second chances. If you liked The Others or even older Stephen King novels like Bag of Bones, you’ll probably enjoy this. It’s not just about ghosts. It’s about how the past clings to us, follows us, and sometimes, if we’re not careful, swallows us whole.
Pages: 236 | ASIN : B0DTBZNRV9
Inescapable Guilt
Say Your Goodbyes to the Light follows a man who thinks he has covered his tracks after committing murder, who is unprepared for the vengeful spirits that are soon following him and invading his life. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The inspiration stemmed from my deep fascination with the consequences of guilt and the belief that one can never truly escape the wrongs they’ve committed—nor should they. I wanted to explore how someone who believes they’ve outsmarted justice faces an unstoppable force beyond their understanding or control. The concept of vengeful spirits intrigued me as a metaphor for inescapable guilt and retribution.
What intrigues you about the horror and paranormal genres that led you to write this book?
Horror and the paranormal fascinate me because they allow us to confront fears that are deeply rooted in the unknown. These genres create a space where we can explore themes of morality, mortality, and the supernatural in ways that challenge our perceptions of reality. Writing this book was an opportunity to delve into those fears, particularly the fear of unseen consequences and the price of our actions, in a way that’s both thrilling and unsettling.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
One of the central themes is the idea of justice and how it can manifest in unexpected ways. I also wanted to examine guilt and its psychological toll, as well as the inevitability of facing the repercussions of one’s actions. Redemption—or the lack of it—is another theme I wove into the story, asking whether true atonement is ever possible when you’ve crossed certain lines.
What is the next book that you’re working on, and when can your fans expect it?
I’m currently working on a new horror novel that continues to delve into the darker side of human nature, combined with a deeply unsettling supernatural twist. Fans can expect it to be released within the next year, and I’m excited to share a story that will push boundaries even further. Stay tuned for updates!
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It starts innocently enough: whispers in the dead of night, flickers of her face in mirrors, and the oppressive chill of a presence he refuses to believe is real. At first, Elliot dismisses it as paranoia—his mind cracking under the weight of what he’s done. But Delyla’s ghost grows stronger, turning his world into a waking nightmare. She invades his thoughts, manipulates his surroundings, and forces him to confront the life he destroyed and the dark corners of his soul.
As her vengeance becomes more unrelenting, Elliot spirals into paranoia and despair. Delyla is determined to make him pay, forcing him to relive her pain, her fear, and her final moments. Trapped in an inescapable cycle of torment, Elliot must make a choice: confess his sins and face the justice of the living, or endure an eternity of punishment at Delyla’s ghostly hands.
Say Your Goodbyes to the Light is a gripping psychological and supernatural thriller that delves into the depths of guilt, justice, and the fragility of the human mind. For fans of chilling hauntings and dark character studies, this novel is a harrowing exploration of crime, punishment, and the shadows we can’t escape.
