Title: Rattling Bone
Series: Outfoxing the Paranormal: Book Two
Author: Jordan L. Hawk
Publisher: Self-Published
Length: 167 Pages
Category: Paranormal Mystery
Rating: 4.5 Stars
At a Glance: As expected, Jordan L. Hawk writes the living daylights out of the ghost encounter scenes where the threats are palpable and the fear is justified. The havoc wreaked on Oscar and his father in the name of vengeance offers up plenty of chills and breath-holding moments of danger.
Reviewed By: Lisa
Blurb: Some secrets won’t stay buried.
Oscar Fox grew up suppressing his psychic gifts. Now he and his ghost-hunting team, including his boyfriend parapsychologist Nigel Taylor, travel to Oscar’s hometown in hopes of learning more about his legacy.
A trail of family secrets lures them to an abandoned distillery, still haunted by the ghosts of Oscar’s ancestors. A curse lies upon his bloodline, and if the team can’t figure out how to stop it, he might be the next to die.
Review: If you’re new to Jordan L. Hawk’s work and are looking for a series steeped in romance, Outfoxing the Paranormal is not the one you’re looking for. The ghosts are the headliners in this series, as are the things that haunt us that have nothing to do with the paranormal and everything to do with the past and family history.
It’s “meet the parents” time for Nigel, which serves to give Oscar some great backstory as well as moving their relationship along to the next level. The rest of the team—Tina and Chris—join them on the road trip to do a little research into who the ghost is residing in Oscar’s childhood home. The ghost Oscar’s father has always insisted does not exist and demanded it never be mentioned because, to quote Delia Deetz, “Live people ignore the strange and unusual”. Moreover, Scott Fox didn’t want the stigma of it hanging over his family, especially not Oscar. Hawk goes deep into the whys and what-fors of the strained relationship between Oscar and his dad, which not only adds some touching moments but also compels and propels Oscar to go behind his dad’s back to learn any- and everything he can about his mamaw Fox.
Discovering a family secret leads the team to the Cloven Oak distillery, a place with a history as violent as some of its ghosts are hostile. It’s undoubtedly Marrow, West Virginia’s most haunted site, not to mention there’s a curse attached to it that has plagued the Fox family for over a century.
And it just so happens the time of terror is upon them again.
As expected, Jordan L. Hawk writes the living daylights out of the encounter scenes where the threats are palpable and the fear is justified. The havoc wreaked on Oscar and his father in the name of vengeance offers up plenty of chills and breath-holding moments of danger. By contrast, there is a gentleness to the story in Oscar and his father finding their way back to each other, his mother playing mediator and peacemaker, Nigel just loving Oscar through all the danger and fear, and Tina and Chris being there as friends, family, and support.
You can buy Rattling Bone here: