The holy terrors

In this first installment of a projected new series, Green (Ishmael Jones series) invites readers to witness a handful of celebrities--in the loosest possible sense of the word--spending the night in an allegedly haunted building. It's all fake, of course: Spooky Time!, a once-popular "reality" TV show, is trying to inflate its sagging ratings with a special live episode. Even the producer admits it's all staged and that the episode will consist of its guest stars pretending to be frightened by shadows and imaginary spooky stuff. However, when genuinely frightening things start happening, the celebrities--including the nominal star of the novel, a skeptical bishop who spreads the word of God on morning talk shows--begin to wonder whether there might actually be something to this haunting business. The building's doors will automatically unlock themselves in the morning, but will anyone be left alive by then? Green, who's spent decades writing stories about the fantastic and the supernatural, knows how to tell a story. This riff on reality TV is perceptive and witty without ever becoming insulting or mean-spirited. Great fun.

Minor celebrities gather in a building with a historically large body count. What could go wrong? The ghost of Agatha Christie hovers over Green's frothy whodunit, which features a haunted setting and colorful characters who arrive there in a considerately slow procession before the inevitable murder. The Stonehaven town hall, arguably the most colorful character of all, is introduced first, as a modest country building but also "the most haunted hall in England," a trademarked identity. Handsome young Alistair Kincaid, newly appointed bishop of All Souls Hollow in London, arrives simultaneously with glamorous actress Diana Hunt, who openly flirts with him. They're followed by eager television producer June Colby, host of the ghost-hunting reality show they've all come to film. Shabby, acclaimed medium Leslie Derleth arrives next, followed by charismatic comedian Toby Marsh and celebrity chef Indira Singh, the final guest. Once the table is set, subsequent chapters feature eerie, presumably ghostly happenings and a lot of engaged dialogue, fleshing out the character portraits and planting tiny seeds of suspense. Readers' patience may be tried when they have to wait more than halfway through the tale before anyone is murdered. But things move quickly once a character declares, "It's clear the killer must be one of us." And there's an alternate solution: The killers are the murderous ghosts they've gathered to troll. After all, the house is credited with 27 deaths…and one disappearance. Could it be? More violence and more twists play out before the final surprise. A sleek and appealing, if overlong, homage to vintage whodunits. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.