Who doesn’t like a good ghost story? Whether it is around the campfire or on a howling, windy Montana night, ghost stories are always in style. This particular book was actually a reprint of stories that appeared in Big Sky Ghosts (volumes one and two, 1993 and 1994). It was frankly a little boring. The author basically combines news/printed articles with interview material from people in various parts of Montana who believe they saw, heard, felt or smelled something go ‘bump in the night’. For anyone who has visited any of the places noted in Montana, the stories are easy enough to glean from willing locals. For anyone who lives here, it is basically the same information that surfaces every Halloween in the local papers. Maybe I have a skewed sense of what a good ghost story is but this book seemed to try to balance a good fright with trying too hard to not make the reporters sound like candidates for a good psychotherapist. I understand and respect the need to not create infamy but the result was a grouping of stories that were really very tame in the telling. The book stays on my shelf of Montana lore, but unless I am planning a trip to one of the sites and want to mess with the kids, I don’t think I will be picking it up as light reading again in the near future.

Rating: 4