{Book Review} 324 Abercorn by Mark Allan Gunnells

Could there be a better time to dive into a haunted house story than coming out of a mandated stay-at-home order?  After being cooped up for a few months there’s no harm in adding a little paranormal trickery to the mix because now if you get too scared you just leave. Assuming, of course, the house is willing to let you go. Stephen Graham Jones believes that in fiction there are two types of haunted houses: The Stay Away and The Hungry. The fun is trying to solve the mystery of which type of haunted house we are dealing with, assuming that the house is actually haunted to begin with. From the opening line, 324 Abercorn sucks you into a beautifully scary story about love, friendship, forgiveness, and second chances.

Published by the award winning independent horror publisher, Crystal Lake Publishing, and written by Mark Allan Gunnells.  324 Abercorn reads like The Haunting of Hill House, or Burnt Offerings, but with a modern spin like, The Good House by Tananarive Due or The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike. Like most haunted house stories it is a slow burn in the beginning to create tension as well as give the reader time to develop a relationship with the characters. This is one of the strengths of the novel. Gunnells creates fantastic characters. In fact, I liked his characters so much that I would have enjoyed this novel without the scares, but luckily I didn’t have to. 

The story kicks off with the aspiring writer, Bradley Storm, on a haunted tour of Savanna, Georgia. As he stands across the street from one of the most haunted houses in the country, he immediately falls in love with the house and sets the goal to buy it once he makes it big. He can’t help but laugh at how ridiculous of an idea this is, but nonetheless the Power of Intention works in mysterious ways. Even after hearing the sinister history of the home, he can’t help but see it as anything other than his future home.

The story jumps to ten years later to the day Brad, now a best-selling author, moves into his newly renovated home at the corner of Abercorn and Wayne. The locals are mystified by the purchase, since the previous owners only lived in the house for a month or two, before they fled the home nearly five decades ago. Since then 324 Abercorn remained vacant with the previous owners refusing to sell to anyone, no matter the price. Knowing this, Brad expects some gossip from a small southern town, especially when its most infamous house has been purchased by an outsider. What he doesn’t know is how deep the roots extend and to what lengths some will go to keep it within the community. 

Right away it is clear that Brad is a very caring and down-to-earth person. Despite his wealth and success, he is very humble and unassuming. In fact, most of his internal dialogue shows a socially awkward man, especially when it comes to dating. Having been burned by past relationships, he’s become reserved and jaded when it comes to love. So naturally, when Brad meets the handsome and much younger man Bias, short for Tobias, at the local bookstore he isn’t sure what to make of their conversation. Bias seemed interested in Brad, but thinks he maybe only feigning interest in order to see the inside of Savannah’s most prized treasure. Having sworn off dating younger men, Brad leaves the store with a little pep in his step, but still emotionally guarded. 

Next we meet Neisha, who is the Curator at the Maverick Heritage Center located across the street. Neisha helps Brad corral a few nectarines that escaped from his overfilled grocery bag and they strike up a conversation. Eventually Neisha guides the conversation away from her and back to the house. Despite writing horror fiction for a living, Brad doesn’t believe in the supernatural. As a result, he tells Neisha that after decades of refusing to sell, the previous owners recently passed away. The remaining family left the house to a distant relative who didn’t believe the house was haunted and therefore had no problem selling it. Neisha reassures Brad that history debunks every rumor about the house, except for one, the house was in fact built directly on top of a slave cemetery.  From there the foundation is set and the story takes off.

With each turn of the page, the mystery unfolds one layer at a time, and with each new development the characters become more invested in the hunt for answers. This shared determination is one of the areas where Gunnells excels with this novel. He creates a healthy level of suspicion in every single character. Yet, despite the hint of possible ulterior motives, every single character in this book is extremely likable. Truthfully, I can’t think of another book where I felt this way about every character. In fact, Bias’ roommate, Harold, whose stage name is Titty-Titty Gangbang, is Savannah’s top female impersonator goes well beyond comic relief and completes a very well rounded group of characters on a quest to finally solve the mystery of 324 Abercorn. Along the way this quirky cast of characters experiences all the scares, misdirection, and plausible deniability that you’ve come to expect from a fantastic haunted house story, but it is the exceptional character development that makes 324 Abercorn standout as one of the best haunted house novels I’ve ever read.

324 Abercorn is due out July 8th. It is available directly from Crystal Lake Press.