by Terrance Mc Arthur

Details on how to win a copy of The Shadow of the Soul at the end of this post.

The Flesh Undying is not a nice thing. It has escaped from being kicked out of several dimensions and wants to take over or destroy this one, but a pesky team of Ghost Finders from the Carnacki Institute keeps getting in his way. In Simon R. Green’s Spirits from Beyond, they clash under the streets of London, awakening the gods of the Druids and that’s only the prelim card before the novel’s main event.

J. C. Chance, the group leader, has eyes that glow gold, thanks to power given from outside this realm. “Happy” Jack Palmer is a depressed telepath who uses drugs to alternately suppress and augment his powers. Melody Chambers loves technology and Jack. She’d like to find a techie substitute for the psychic’s self-medication. Kim is part of the team sometimes, but she tends to disappear, which is understandable because she is a ghost.

The Institute boss sends her Number-One quartet–they got that way because the better squads were knocked off in paranormal attacks–to a haunted inn in the country. The locals are expecting the likes of Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray with proton packs and power streams. Everybody in the downstairs pub has tales of haunting experiences at the inn, but most of them are stories told in every English inn.

However, there are a few local legends that seem unusual, that might have happened there. The centuries-old building has spirits that know your weakest link, Russian Roulette rooms that beckon you into other eras of the inn’s past…and keep you there, along with powers that are tied to an unwilling Druid sacrifice, who really is upset about the whole episode. Celtic lore, ectoplasmic mosh pits, librarians, the innkeeper’s long-lost love, a Storm of the Centuries, and basketry all figure in the unraveling of the truth.

Simon R. Green’s Nightside novels tend toward the dark and “nourish.” His Shaman Bond series is madcap spies in a paranormal world, and the Ghost Finders usually remind me of Scooby-Doo with real monsters, flippant and snappy. Spirits from Beyond deals with weightier questions for the characters, questioning their paths and upping the chances for ultimate destruction. It’s as if Tinkerbell finally started soul-searching her relationship with Peter Pan and Captain Hook acquired an attachable chainsaw!

Check out more fantasy & horror book reviews in our fantasy and fangs section.

To enter to win a copy of Spirits From Beyond, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “Spirits,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen October 26, 2013. U.S. residents only.

Use this link to purchase this book & a portion goes to help support KRL:

Terrance V. Mc Arthur is a California-born, Valley-raised librarian/entertainer/writer. He lives in Sanger, four blocks from the library, with his wife, his daughter, and a spinster cat.