“The White Horse Inn no longer belonged to the realm of physics and logic. This was now Demon Country.” Welcome to Speed Dating with the Dead by Scott Nicholson!
Wayne “Digger” Wilson is looking for money –and the spirit of his dead wife– when he hosts a paranormal convention at the historic White Horse Inn in the remote Appalachian mountains. Along with his teenage daughter Kendra, he joins dozens of ghost hunters and paranormal junkies in a weekend search for the ghosts that supposedly haunt the old hotel. But they get more than they bargained for when a real demon shows up…
Yet another book that lured me with a strange title! I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, but what I got was an interesting horror-comedy concoction. I loved the setup of a paranormal convention in a creepy old hotel, since I adore ghost hunting shows (despite not believing in ghosts…yeah, I don’t get it either). Though it wasn’t a huge part of the story, there were references to various technology used in ghost hunts, which I thought was cool. Unfortunately no one used my favorite device, the Ovilus III, aka the “spectral speak-and-spell” of Ghost Adventures fame! Still, it was fun to see a novel about this concept.
This premise also allowed a wide variety of different character types to show up: die-hard believers, sneering skeptics, scamming hoaxters, youtube celebrities-of-the-moment, and of course, the exasperated hotel staff who have to deal with everyone. Nicholson takes all of these types and runs with them, creating a cast of crazies that inevitably clash with or without a demon around. As for the demon, the story gets intense and gory once he really gets going!
This book was a quick read, but I enjoyed it. I hope there are more books out there about ghost hunts gone wrong!
