Remy is a tour guide for an infamously haunted Carrow House. The house is isolated from town and surrounded by a rocky ocean coastline. Her tour groups spend three hours overnight listening to Remy recite the long and dark history of the house and stories about the occupants who became victims. One wealthy group member, Mark, approaches her about being a part of an extended stay in Carrow. Two weeks with a group to study and document paranormal activity at Carrow House. Before she knows it, Remy finds herself spending two weeks inside Carrow with a group of strangers. Maybe now Remy will have her own stories to tell instead of retelling stories about other people.
Right away, a storm moves in, and the group is cut off from communicating with the outside world. Spooky things start to happen right away-opening and slamming doors, footsteps, shadowy figures, cold spots- making it an immediate success. The medium in the group conducts a séance that does not go exactly as planned. How many spirits really occupy Carrow House? Are they trapped there? Are they harmless or seeking revenge? Then, members of the group start to disappear and show up dead. The storm rages on for days, preventing them from leaving the property no matter how desperate they are. The medium reminds the group that spirits cannot harm humans, but Remy isn’t so sure. If it isn’t the spirits of Carrow causing the deaths, it must be a member of the group. But who, and why? And how is Remy going to survive long enough to get help?
The Carrow Haunt is another griping success for Darcy Coates. A captivating beginning hooks the reader into a fast-paced and exhilarating story. There are a lot of characters to keep track of in this story, alive and dead, making it hard to become too attached to any of the characters. Perhaps a little more back story for the alive characters in the group would stir more emotion as they die off, or for even some of the dead characters in the house. Despite that, Coates has created another scary story that will keep the reader glued to the pages and reading way past bedtime. I know I look forward to reading another Coates story this summer! I better order more than one at a time at this rate!
