Book Review: "The New England Ghost Files" by Charles Turek Robinson

With Halloween right around the corner, I recently went searching for a good book to read to put me in the spirit of the holiday. What better to do that than a book about, well, spirits?! "The New England Ghost Files: An authentic compendium of frightening phantoms" was an excellent choice because unlike so many books about ghosts, it's not either over the top in it's belief or disbelief of the haunting.

On the contrary, this book, which was written by Charles Turek Robinson and illustrated by B. Turek Robinson, collects first hand "ghost sightings" in a very objective manner. The author performed several interviews with those who came forward with stories, and the book only contains accounts that the author considers to be consistent, believable stories told by credible witnesses.

In addition, the author adds notes to each story based on his own research into the history of the "haunted" locations. For example, if a home is haunted by the ghost of a old woman, the authored researched whether an old woman owned and/or died in the house at some point in its history. Instances where history backs up the stories of the witnesses are especially chilling for the reader, as they add even more credibility to the story, and make it seem that much more possible that it's true.

There are over 50 ghost stories in this book, ranging in length from a page to up to ten pages in length, which makes for a quick read and a great book for folks who find time to read only in short intervals. The stories span all the New England states, and offer a great variety of ghosts and haunting to keep the read interested.

I would recommend this book for anyone interested in "real" ghost stories, but especially to those who live in the New England area, especially if you live in the same area of southeastern Massachusetts and northern Rhode Island where the author resides. Because of his familiarity with the area and people there, an unusually large quantity of this stories come from this region. Having familiarity with the locations of the supposed "haunting" make them even more frightening. I am personally familiar with several of the locations mentioned in the book, as the author and I share the same hometown, stories from which appear in the book several times. I have been to several of the "haunted" site in my time, but will now think twice about visiting them again in the future.

In conclusion, I would highly recommend this book for anyone looking for a great ghost book that's heavy on objectivity, research, and believability, and light on over the top gore, terror, and belief or condemnation of the existence of ghosts.