A Glimmer of Ghosts (Book 1 in The Hell Gate Series)

The heroine, Melisande, suffers from a severe form of narcolepsy that enables her to see and communicate with spirits, both good and evil. Together with her friends, they form a ghost hunting business where her friends video her in various locations in their hometown of Portsmouth, Virginia, while she’s in a hypnogogic state [the state of her narcolepsy that enables her to see spirits]. All is going well until one fateful night as they’re filming in a cemetery where she attracts the attention of the wrong ghost, endangering both her life and the lives of her friends, and getting herself pulled into the fight between good and evil. Melisande needs to learn to harness her powers to help the benevolent spirits keep the demons from opening the Hell Gate in her hometown, because if she fails, the world will be destroyed.

Ms. Skye has crafted an intriguing tale full of history and fascinating paranormal angles, the likes of which the reader probably won’t have seen before. The fact that Melisande’s powers come from a medical condition brings a new approach to the paranormal powers genre. The history of people and places used from the Portsmouth region brings extra depth to the tale as well. In several places, the descriptions of the varying states and side effects of narcolepsy get a little monotonous, and some scenes containing sexual content may be a little disturbing to some readers. However, the anticipation of who will win the battle for the Hell Gate will have readers on the edge of their seats throughout this incredibly inventive debut novel from a talented author.

Katy Nielsen