Killing Ghost

Killing Ghost
by Christopher Ransom

About the Book:
James Hastings once enjoyed a lucrative but hollow career pretending to be someone else. But when his wife Stacey dies tragically behind the Los Angeles mansion she so lovingly restored, James finds himself alone, spiraling into grief, and haunted by a familiar menace that is not ready for him to move on.

Salvation comes in the form of Annette Copeland, a beautiful widow who moves into the house next door. James and Annette bond quickly over the spousal losses they have suffered, but as their unconventional romance escalates, Annette begins to exhibit uncanny manners and desires that belong to Stacey. Concerned friends and former lovers who try to come between them meet with increasingly diabolical fates, and James becomes convinced Annette's cosmetic changes are only the beginning of a horrific yet alluring case of possession.

Driven to isolation far outside of Los Angeles, James and his unstable companion return to the deserted gated community of Sheltering Palms, where evidence of Annette's family tragedy is waiting for him, and James' investigations unwillingly draw the attentions of two dangerous personalities: Rick Butterfield, a delusional policeman who knows Annette's history and still pines for her; and Aaron, a 10-year-old boy who wanders the desolate subdivision nightly, waiting for his parents to come home.

With every attempt to atone for his failings as a husband plunging James deeper into a nightmare struggle for survival, he must finally confront the ghost of the man he used to be, the origin of his resurrected other half, and the true face of the evil that has brought them together.

Killing Ghost is at once a descent into psychological terror, a midnight meditation of the addictive nature of love, and a novel that redefines the ghost story for a culture obsessed with dark entertainments.

Previously published in the UK as The Haunting of James Hastings, this Cemetery Dance hardcover edition brings the novel to the US for the first time.

"The second novel from the author of bestselling The Birthing House, (Killing Ghost) is an old-fashioned chiller packed with spooks to send a shiver down the strongest spine. Compelling from first page to last — just don't read it at night."
— Daily Mail (UK)

"A creepy and surreal journey, an enthralling experience from page one. Ransom's deft narrative touch pulls us into James Hastings's fractured world, leaving us doubting his reliability, his sanity — has us doubting ourselves, as well. This one is not to be missed."
— Kevin Lucia, Review Editor, Shroud Magazine

"A book to be read in one sitting, Ransom has all the fire and guile of the great ghost storytellers and so makes Killing Ghost leap off the page at every turn.  Dark, disturbing, deeply absorbing and demands to be read with all the lights within reach.  Indeed, to put it simply, this is brilliant stuff."
— Chris High

"Christopher Ransom is a name to take note of.  He has a command of the medium that shows a maturity well beyond that of a second book novelist and delivers a modern, hip style to a genre that can be slightly moribund at times.  Killing Ghost, fully recommended, is a novel not to be missed.
— Beyond Scary

"Ransom is able to tap into the neuroses bubbling underneath the surface of communities and individuals that have removed themselves from reality to the point where they begin to fall apart. Reviewers may have to stop describing him as 'the next Stephen King' and start praising him for being the first Christopher Ransom."
— Shots Magazine

"Gripped me from the first chapter to the last with its rich, sometimes gritty, and occasionally downright nasty details. The terror felt by James Hastings was portrayed with such skill that I can see readers cringing, yet being compelled to keep speeding through the passages, screaming and looking away at the same time.  This is one well written novel and an author that I would highly recommend to any horror fans.
— Fringe Magazine

"As avid readers of dark and speculative fiction, most of us know the correlation between music and fiction: they feed each other.  And that's what we have with Killing Ghost: a striking hybrid of gothic romance novel and a CD box set chock full of lyrical extras.  Like Rebecca and Bag of Bones, has at its heart a beautiful illustration of domestic married life and how emotions can be woven into the brick and mortar of houses."
— Horrorscope

"Ransom's style mimics that of the early Stephen King and Dan Simmons's horror fiction."
 — Library Journal

Praise for the Author:
"It's rare that a first-time novelist comes at you with all weapons locked and loaded, with a voice that can be hard-edged, lyrical or funny, with mind and heart — and a story and characters solid enough to display both mind and heart without being overwhelmed by them.  It's also rare to find yourself in the midst of a damn creepy, very original ghost story.  Christopher Ransom is just such a novelist and The Birthing House is just such a book."
— Jack Ketchum

"A stunning debut — swaddling the reader in dread from the very first sentence, and spiraling into a heart-stopping climax."
— Michael Marshall, author of The Straw Men and The Intruders

Christopher Ransom is the author of the international bestselling novels The Birthing House, The People Next Door, and Killing Ghost (originally published in the United Kingdom as The Haunting of James Hastings). Before he began writing fiction full-time, Christopher managed a business importing exotic reptiles, worked in advertising sales at Entertainment Weekly magazine, and was a copywriter for Famous Footwear. He has lived in New York, Los Angeles, and the small town of Mineral Point, Wisconsin. He now lives near his hometown of Boulder, Colorado, with his two rescued pound mutts, Cowboy and Tater-Tot.

Published in three states:
• Trade Hardcover Edition bound in full-cloth and Smyth sewn with full color dust jacket ($25)
• Limited Edition Hardcover of 350 signed and numbered copies bound in full-cloth and Smyth sewn ($50)
• Traycased Hardcover Lettered Edition of 26 signed and lettered copies bound in leather and Smyth sewn with a satin ribbon page marker ($200)

Excerpt... coming soon

Artwork