Ghost Hotel

By Arthur Slade

Book 2 of the Canadian Chills series

Walter Biggar Bronson (a.k.a. Wart), and his friend Cindy meet a ghost one night after school. The small, mournful boy leads them across the Broadway Bridge to the gracious Bessborough Hotel. After a strange incident in the elevator, they find themselves still in the hotel–but back in 1936. Some spooky things are going on. The room numbers are all mixed up. The library on the mezzanine is filled with hundreds of copies of the same book. And out on the street, the cars are all the same–vintage Studebakers. Back in the present, Wart and Cindy follow their motto–“Gather, identify, solve”–until they crack the case, with help from Wart’s distinctly odd parents, and the loan of his mother’s time-travel-proof cell phone.

For all the humour in Slade’s gentle spoof of the detective genre (“A good detective always knows what time it is”), there is a serious ghost story here. Young Archie Tortle, drowned along with his parents in 1936, has not been able to accept his death. He has created his own world in the hotel, where everything serves his needs. Only Wart and Cindy can help him come to terms with his loss and stop him haunting the hotel.

The Canadian Chills series, originally published by Coteau Books, combines Arthur Slade’s comic genius and his ability to make your heart freeze with terror. Each story is chock full of mystery and surprises and set in a strange Canadian setting.  And at the centre of these tales are dynamic, smart characters who aren’t afraid of a little adventure, whether that adventure includes ghosts, aliens, or Sasquatches.