Off the Bookshelf: THE GHOST BOX, by Mike Duran

This one pushes the envelope. I admit, I like weird, other-worldly stories, but most of the time there has to be some humor, some silliness. I like Warehouse 13, not X-Files.

GHOST BOX tends more toward the X-Files side of things.

This book and author were talked about a lot at the recent Realm Makers conference, and not just because the cool cover art was a finalist for the Parable Award. The book really pushes it into Christian horror -- yeah, there is such a category -- and spiritual warfare. Beyond Peretti.

What's a ghost box, anyway? It's a means of hearing the voices of the dead, trying to communicate with the living world. And a gigundous one is being built in LA, as a building. Where else would it be built? It outdoes that huge spire in Dubai. Yeah, that big. And weird things are going on underground, and strange creepies are being drawn to the tower in preparation for the grand opening. Think the explosion in the first Ghostbusters movie, cubed, to the 10th power, and remove all the cuteness. Yeah. Like that.

Reagan Moon, our hero, is a reporter for a paranormal newspaper called the Blue Crescent. The thing is, he's pretty much a skeptic. At least, until he gets drawn into the weirdness going on with the tower, with the serial murders of mediums throughout the city, and the murder of his girlfriend a year before. That's just the tip of the slimy, occultic iceberg.

Just shows how good this book is, that despite knowing it's going to get really freaky in a few more pages, I kept reading. And not just because our book club chose this book to discuss this month. I could follow Reagan Moon on a few more adventures. No problem at all.