THE HAUNTED SOUTH

Kevin Stillwell's old-fashioned delivery is ideal for Nancy Roberts's ghost stories, which range from charming to frightening. "Room for One More" is set in the 1950s, when New Yorker Elise Barnhardt visits the South. Stillwell's dazzling description of Spanish moss and a sprawling mansion provide verisimilitude. Things become scary one night when Barnhardt looks out her window to see a stagecoach and a footman who calls out, "Room for one more . . ." At the story's climax, Stillwell's delivery furthers the creepy mood. Most sad is "The Haunted Gold Mine," in which Skinflint McIntosh owns a mine, which he claims is safe. The story of the miners' uprising and the death of spirited Joe Magee is heartrending. At the end, his ghost proclaims, "I'll haunt McIntosh forever." S.G.B. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2017]