Title: Meeting Place of the Dead
Author: Richard Palmisano
Genre: True Haunting, Non-Fiction, Ghosts and Hauntings
Age Group: Adult
Rating: 3 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Come with us as we investigate a place that has so many spirits it is impossible to even hazard a count. A place that seems warm and inviting, but this is only an illusion a ghostly trap to lure you in. On this journey we discover hidden secrets, violent ghosts who find enjoyment in attacking the living, and entities that disguise themselves as children. Discover why a paranormal investigation group with more than thirty years of experience had to shut down its investigations and walk away from an incredibly haunted property.
Meeting Place of the Dead has a logical build up: we start with the first investigation, then go on to the next, etc. We get a rundown of everything that happened during a specific investigation, and sometimes we get smaller chapters in between that deals with research into the property the group is investigating and its history, or about what happened on cameras the investigators installed during a previous investigations.
So while the build up is logical, and that would suggest that the book would be a strong, non-fictional account of what happened at this particular house, it lacks credibility. Let me explain. We follow a group of paranormal enthusiasts as they enter a supposedly-haunted house, equipped with high-tech video cameras, a ghostbox, and EVP meters. From the first minute they arrive there, they establish a connection with the entities (plural) that inhabit the house. Now, one entity I’m willing to believe. Two, sure. Three? Maybe. But we’re talking dozens of entities here. Ghosts who may not have any connection with the house at all, but who just dropped by to have a chat with our paranormal group.
Maybe something is wrong with their equipment, I don’t know, but it sounds like one heck of a coincedence that they encounter this many ghosts in a house not even reputedly haunted. The house’s reputation is a bit tainted, but it’s nowhere near as horrible as one would expect from a house inhabited by this many spirits.
Then the group brings in a bunch of mediums who more-or-less tell the same thing, except with some twists here and there. They find a spot where they suspect a child’s corpse is hidden, but nothing is there, with leads me to question the mediums’ credibility. Also, the way the author tells us everything is more like a video transcript, like he’s just typing whatever happened on video.
The story is repetitive, mostly because of the strange video-transcript-like writing style, and overall, lacks credibility. The focus is mostly on investigating, which is good, but completely lacks in the historical research department. I would’ve like to learn more about the house’s history.
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