Short Take: “The Dunewalkers,” Ron Ripley

Pros: Interesting new themes
Cons: Weird that Paul showed up at a new place
Rating: 4 out of 5

Ron Ripley’s The Dunewalkers is book two in his Moving In series. (Here’s my review of book one, Moving In.) In the previous book, Brian and his wife Jenny had a nasty ghostly experience when they moved into a new house. Now they’re determined to help others with similar problems. Helping them are Sylvia and Jeannette (a teacher Sylvia and Leo had). They get a call for help from William Engberg, who just moved into a new house and has already met up with his ghost problem: Kathleen, who won’t let him leave the house.

This is a relatively short story, and I very much liked the ending (obviously, not going to spoil it by saying why). We get to find out a lot more about Leo and his past; he has left his journal and invaluable library in Sylvia’s hands, and bit by bit we learn about his life. This new story introduces entirely new aspects to hauntings.

Paul, the young bad guy from the previous novel, shows up. That felt a bit out of place. There are a couple of little things (like Brian pressing ‘play’ when he wants to record something). Pretty trivial stuff. I’m still enjoying the fact that this tale avoids a lot of the horror tropes: no children, no family dog, no teenagers–just adults doing their thing.