In the bleak, forbidding house of her great-aunts, neglected twelve-year-old orphan Maggie hears ghostly voices and finds magic that awakens in her the capacity to love and be loved.

In this work the author studies the role of toy characters in works ranging from older classics such as Pinocchio and Winnie the Pooh to modern texts such as The Mouse and his Child and the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes science fiction with robots and cyborgs.

Publisher Description

“An inventively plotted, goose-bumps inducing ghost story.” —Booklist A house with a sinister past—and a grisly power . . . When Michael Flint is asked by American friends to look over an old Shropshire house they have unexpectedly inherited, he is reluctant to leave the quiet of his Oxford study. But when he sees Charect House, its uncanny echoes from the past fascinate him—even though it has such a sinister reputation that no one has lived there for almost a century. But it’s not until Michael meets the young widow, Nell West, that the menace within the house wakes . . . “Rayne spins eerie yarns within yarns like a latter-day Isak Dinesen or Wilkie Collins.” —Kirkus Reviews “A chilling mystery from another era. . . . Once again Rayne delivers.” —Booklist

A maternity leave cut short by a supernatural murder? Check. Three death-obsessed, departed suspects? Check. Juggling a vengeful spirit and a teething baby? In progress... Psychic social worker Elenora Bello recently gave birth and helped vanquish the nefarious spirit of a centuries-old killer. Now, all she wants to do is enjoy her baby girl and catch up on much-needed sleep, without soul-crushing premonitions or murderers. Is that really so much to ask? Apparently, yes. When a construction worker suspiciously dies while renovating a condemned Victorian house, Elenora is called in to read the place, which is rumored to be haunted. By digging into the house’s previous owners—among which are a satanic cult leader, a medium, and a post-mortem photographer—Elenora must figure out what happened in the heavily wallpapered mansion before the malevolent ghost takes another life. Trapped Souls is the second paranormal mystery in a series following a forty-something psychic heroine hell-bent on helping the supernaturally afflicted. It contains sassy witches, creepy bits, a truckload of twists, colorful language, and an emotional ending.