THE VANISHING SEASON

As the ghost who narrates this excruciatingly slow-paced story, Cassandra Campbell creates an atmosphere of dark mystery. The plot moves back and forth between new girl Maggie’s friendship with her two teenaged neighbors and the mystery of the teenagers’ disappearance. Later, they turn up dead in a lake. In a subplot, the ghost is trying to determine how to move beyond her “ghost-ness.” Campbell’s skills in creating an ambiance of mystery, romance, and the paranormal cannot overcome the weaknesses in this story as it slogs to its not-so-surprising, resolution. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2014]