Review – Ghouls Gone Wild by Victoria Laurie

This is the fourth book from the Ghost Hunter Mystery series featuring MJ Holliday (ghost hunter and medium), her best friend and business partner Gilley and Heath Whitefeather a fellow ghost hunter first seen in the last book Demons are a Ghoul’s Best Friend.

In the last book they battled an evil snake like demon which was filmed for a TV programme about possessed possessions, and they now have their own TV show ‘Ghoul Getters’, travelling around Europe finding the most haunted places to ghost hunt.  Unfortunately this also means that Doc the parrot wasn’t in the book that much, which was sad because who can resist a parrot who has a tendency to sing YMCA and shouts ‘Gilley, I’ve been shot!’ when he’s upset?  Also missing from this book was MJ’s boyfriend Dr Steven Sable who only made an appearance at the end…

In Scotland, the researchers found a village haunted by a witch and her sisters.  They emerge every 100 years to claim the lives of 7 people from the clans who brutally murdered and tortured the sisters believing that they were responsible for the plague that swept through the village.  Both MJ and Heath are shocked by the immense power that these witches have causing them to be physically and psychically beaten and rendering their usual weapons almost useless.

The witches, called upon by one of their direct descendants are out for blood and it turns out the Gilley’s ancestors were from one of the clans who tortured the witches and has been singled out to be one of their victims favouring fire as their weapon.  With his life in danger MJ and Heath decide that they have to pass over or lock down the witches to save him.  Gilley, in a permanent state of hysterical panic is now dousing himself in fire retardant and carrying around a fully armed fire extinguisher like a security blanket – never one to over-react!

I love Victoria Laurie’s books and this is no exception.  Her characters have many dimensions and she isn’t afraid to show their flaws, like true friends, you know that they can be sulky, snarky and sometimes a pain in the neck, but you still love them – and this is how you end up feeling about these characters.  I like that we were able to learn more about Heath, showing his sense of humour rather than being a ghost hunting pretty boy.

As far as the mystery part of the story goes, the clues were all cleverly concealed, so you get to figure out the mystery along with the characters – a perfect plot!  Like all Laurie’s books, the reveal at the end was full of excitement, danger, spooky goings on and a little bit of sadness, topped off with some humour too.

The new characters of Gopher, John, Meg and Kim are probably all going to be featured in the next books, expanding the cast and sub-plotlines, making for complex and exciting future books.  There was a cliff hanger at the end with the appearance of Dr Steven and I hope that this isn’t the last we see of him.  The only irritant in this book is the characters we offered tea with cream, something that I doubt any British person would have – you drink tea with milk!  Although you may have a cream tea which involves eating cakes and scones with cream at teatime.

I knew that this book would be brilliant, and I wasn’t disappointed.  The fast paced storyline, likable characters, paranormal subjects and humour in the books all add up to an exciting read, and one that I’ll re-read too.  My only problem, is that it was over too soon and I have to wait until next year for the next book.

Victoria Laurie’s Website