GHOST HUNTER'S DAUGHTER

When a famous ghost hunter vanishes on the job, his daughter and her spirit-sensitive classmate brave a vengeful curse to bring him home.

Everyone in Archer’s Mills knows Claire Holiday, and all her classmates want to be her friend—but not on her account. Her father, Miles Holiday, hunts down and banishes ghosts on the popular TV show Invisible Intelligence. Unlike Claire, no one wants to be friends with Lucas Kent, who moved to Archer’s Mills two years ago to live with his paternal grandmother, who talks to ghosts and firmly disapproves of Miles Holiday’s methods. Forces from beyond the veil bring Lucas and Claire together when Lucas receives a desperate visitation from Claire’s dead mother, who warns him that her father is in grave danger. This fast-paced supernatural mystery switches between Lucas’ and Claire’s perspectives, so readers see both characters struggle with their own insecurities, discover potential in themselves, and grow by working together. The story is set after an unidentified natural disaster that devastated the East Coast, and cellphones no longer receive reception. All of the primary characters are presumed white, and the background characters fall into a white default. Poblocki deftly sustains tension until the resolution. Not all of the characters receive a happy ending, but the conclusion is satisfying and ties up loose ends all the same.

Suspenseful and spine-shivering.