It was her house first

Priest (The Drowning House) spins a chillingly effective ghost story. After the death of her brother, Ben, anxious Ronnie Mitchell moves into a house in West Seattle. Guilt-stricken by her perceived failure to save Ben, she obsesses over fears as far-fetched as "wearing polyester and being caught in a plane crash so my clothes melt to my skin before I die." Little does she know, her new home is haunted by the vengeful spirit of silent movie star Venita Rost, who lived in the house with her husband, Oscar Amundson, and their young daughter, Priscilla, in the 1930s, and has wrought havoc on everyone who's lived there since. Priscilla died in an apparent accident in 1932, Venita drowned shortly after, and Oscar was wrongfully convicted of killing Venita and hanged. Priest alternates narration between Ronnie and the ghost of Bartholomew Sloan, a detective who harbors his own guilt about failing to help acquit Oscar in the 1930s. Finding fresh angles on a familiar premise, Priest delivers an eccentric haunted house thriller with plenty of surprises up its sleeve. Readers will be up all night. Agent: Stacia Decker, Dunow, Carlson, and Lerner. (July)

Part of Ronnie hopes that the decrepit home she has purchased with her brother's life-insurance payout truly is haunted. She's deep in grief and guilt and has chosen to stop taking her anxiety medications. She and her partner in loss, Kate, know her hypervigilance is in overdrive. Once ghosts do appear, she must discover the truth of Venita Rost's tragedy. The story goes that the film star took her life after her daughter died, and then her husband was executed. The family friend she left the home to died immediately thereafter, and no one else could survive ownership. Ronnie's paranoia tells her that the living are as dangerous as the dead, but can she trust it? DiMercurio is truly convincing as the struggling Ronnie, who feels lost and broken but keeps moving ahead. Mark Bramhall creates a less endearing Bartholomew Sloan, who is an aged and secretive shade. His friend-turned-enemy Venita Rost, as portrayed by Cindy Kay, is angry and lost but confident, with a vengeance that doesn't recognize the innocent. VERDICT This novel will earn Priest (The Drowining House) new devotees, while her longtime fans will be excited to recognize traces and motifs from her other works in this phenomenal story.--Matthew Galloway