Deborah Grabien, The Weaver and the Factory Maid

The Weaver and the Factory Maid

Deborah Grabien

Dunne, Dec 2003, $22.95, 192 pp.

ISBN: 0312314221

Due to a cash flow problem, caused by loans and an energy investment, Scottish land owner Albert Wychsale cannot pay in money the house restoration debt he owes folk musician Rupert "Ringan" Laine. Instead he gives the Brit free lodging in the eighteenth century Lumbe's cottage near the restored Wychsale House.

Ringan and his girlfriend theater producer and actress Penelope Wintercraft-Hawkes move in their new abode. Quickly they feel cold air and other eerie phenomena that lead the duo and their pal Jane to conclude the house is haunted. They research the official and unauthorized historical records until the trio learns of the 1817 homicide. George Roeper killed his sister and her lover when he saw them lying down together. How to allow the ghosts to find rest is what the three humans struggle to achieve.

THE WEAVER AND THE FACTORY MAID is the first tale in a series based on popular ballads. The story of Betsy and Bill is fun to follow, but if readers expect Spielberg's Poltergeist or Straub's Ghost Story, they need to turn to the originals. Instead, this novel is an amiable tale about three nice humans trying to help spirits move on. Fun and original, but no scares with this fine plot.

Harriet Klausner