[Haunted 16] • The Old House

It’s summertime and Mia needs a break. The Paranormal Entity Exposure Partners are offered a stay at Price Hills Resort, a ski lodge with a hundred and four rooms, located at the top of one of the best non-mountainous ski runs in Wisconsin. Of course, it’s not the right season for fun in the snow, and this isn’t a vacation. PEEPs has been hired to clear the hotel of paranormal activity (mysterious slamming doors, ghostly and violent bar patrons) before they open as a family-friendly destination. The gondola will be shut down after their arrival, so PEEPs will be working in isolation with no escape but a trek on foot down difficult terrain. And the thunder is growing ever louder.

Mia and Ted have been weathering a storm of their own but still need to find shelter, a place to mend and heal without the interference of friend and foe. They pack up Brian and head to a cottage on Wolf’s Head Lake, a dead zone for cellphones and computers but a place to rest and concentrate on themselves for a change. There is just one thing in the way: the old house.

It’s just an old wreck of a building, clapboard with a stone foundation, the windows long gone, and nature has begun to settle in. It has been abandoned for too many years, but the roofline is straight and the foundation is good. Twelve-year-old Mark Leighton discovers it on the way to his favorite fishing hole and is strangely drawn to it. It consumes his thoughts during the day and calls to him at night. He tries to resist.

But the old house calls; the old house wants; the old house gets.

Pack up your sunscreen and shorts and join Mia, Murphy and PEEPs as they investigate “The Old House,” in the 16th novel of the “Haunted Series.”