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)