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Friday, July 12, 2013

Blog Tour: Ghostly Summons by John Karr



Author: John Karr
Publisher: Dark Continents Publishing
Date of publication: March 2013


Lars Kelsen doesn’t believe in psychic phenomenon. To him, visions of murder victims are a form of mental illness. Once they begin, options are limited; he can try to ignore them or deal with them by exposing a killer. Only the latter provides any semblance of peace. Temporarily, anyway. Five years into his new life as a programmer, Kelsen—ex-crime beat reporter with a penance he can never fully satisfy—sees a victim.

In person. Upright. Staring.

Typical of such past "Visits" as he calls them, he doesn’t welcome this one. The nude form of a beautiful millionairess in his cubicle means murder has come to the vacation haven known as North Carolina’s Outer Banks. It means he’ll have to go places he'd rather avoid. See things he'll wish he hadn’t. Do things that don't come naturally, like in-your-face confrontation and bending the law. Actually, breaking the law ... but with good intent. It also means dealing with one very attractive county coroner, who pushes his buttons in a not entirely unwelcome way.

So begins Kelsen's return to investigative reporting—complete with attempts on his life, fights, deception, and all the technological tricks, such as GPS and computer hacking, at his disposal. And maybe even finding a new love interest.
Ghostly Summons is a pretty good read.  It definitely caught my interest from the beginning.  The mystery of who killed Jeannette Broughton was well fleshed out.  There are a few interesting suspects that will keep you guessing until the end. While I enjoyed the overall mystery, I found that the historical parts about Roanoke slowed the book down a bit. But I think lovers of history will find them interesting.
 I liked the characters, especially Lars.  He seemed very real to me.  I always like a flawed character. His grief over the loss of his son was heart breaking. I felt for him as he tried to find out the truth so that Jeanette's ghost would go away. He is an intriguing character that I would love to read more about. This is definitely one to give a try if you like paranormal mysteries. Make sure to check out the tour schedule to see what others are saying!

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About the author:
John A. Karr believes fiction writing each day helps keep the demons at bay. Ghostly Summons is his
first full-length novel for Dark Continents Publishing. DCP has also published his Weird West novella, Ujahwek. He is the author of a handful of other novels: Death Clause, Hippocrates Shattered (scheduled for reprint by World Castle Publications as Shattered), Rhone, and Van Gogh, Encore. His short stories have appeared on webzines Allegory, The Absent Willow Review, and Danse Macabre. More works are in progress and in the marketing queue.

Karr is an ardent believer in the quote by Carl Van Doren (1885-1950), U.S. man of letters: Yes, it's hard to write, but it's harder not to.

John A. Karr's Web Site:
http://www.johnakarr.com/

John A. Karr's Twitter:

https://twitter.com/JohnAKarr

John A. Karr's Facebook:
http://facebook.com/johnakarr

John A. Karr's Blog:
http://johnakarr.blogspot.com/

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Kari,

Thanks very much for reading and reviewing Ghostly Summons!

John

Tribute Books said...

Yeah, Lars is a great character. Isn't he, Kari? I'm hoping John writes more mysteries about him too. Thanks for the review :)