Review: Cries in the Night: a Lowcountry Ghost Story by Lori Roberts

Print Length: 250 pages

Publisher: Canterbury House Publishing LTD (October 15, 2015)

From Goodreads.com:  Carly and Austin Tabor relocated from the Mile High City of Denver to the Low Country of Charleston, purchasing a diamond-in-the-rough home on historic King Street. As soon as the couple takes possession of their home, unexplained noises and a trio of spirits lead Carly to seek the help of sensitive, Delaney Warrick, to understand why the ghosts are unable to find rest. Searching through the historical records of the city, Delaney learns the ghosts are the original owners, Andrew and Celeste Pettigrew, who were murdered in Carly's front parlor two hundred years prior. Carly and Delaney must solve the mystery of why the couple's home is also being haunted by the surly dock worker, Benjamin Hastings. Carly and Delaney enlist the help of paranormal investigators to find out why the ghosts won't leave the scene of their murders, and find that a fourth spirit, orphan Freddy Richards, was hiding in the house when the murders took place. Is Freddie the final piece to the puzzle? Will Carly and Delaney unlock the secrets that will free the spirits to find peace?

                                                  *******************

My Rating: 2 stars out of 5

This book was not the nail biting, don't read before bedtime story that I was hoping it would be. In fact, there were moments were I actually found it to be rather dull. I felt that the author took longer than she should to get into the meat of the story. Instead it felt like the author kept repeating the same things over and over again. 

To begin with there was a scene where the author repeated the same paragraph (word for word) only pages after the first time. Then thing that both Carly (who had prior experience with this particular thing) as well as her husband (a neurosurgeon) completely overlooked bugged me in the worst way. Here you have something with the most basic of explanations for something that had absolutely nothing to do with the paranormal - and you don't even consider it. I found that completely inconceivable. 

The final (and to me most annoying) detail was that I felt like she began beating a dead horse with the haunting itself. Yes, we understand there are loud noises and crying that can be heard all hours of the day and night. Yes, we understand your house is haunted. I really didn't need to be reminded of this every few pages. I would rather have spent more time on the history - getting to know the ghosts and their history more than on reading the same dull accounts of the same dull hauntings.

 Overall, this was not the story I was expecting, but I feel that with another round of edits, and some different details of the hauntings themselves, this could have been a more entertaining story.

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own. 

********************

 Cries in the Night: a Lowcountry Ghost Story is available from Amazon.com