Hellsinger: Book One When his Uncle Mortimer died and left him Hoxne Grange, the family’s Gilded Age mansion, Tristan Pryce became the second generation of Pryces to serve as a caretaker for the estate, a way station for spirits on their final steps to the afterlife. Tristan is prepared for challenges, though not necessarily from the ghosts he’s seen since childhood. Determined to establish … Determined to establish Tristan’s insanity and gain access to his trust fund, his loving relatives hire Dr. Wolf Kincaid and his paranormal researchers, Hellsinger Investigations, to prove the Grange is not haunted.
Skeptic Wolf Kincaid has made it his life’s work to debunk the supernatural. After years of cons and fakes, he can’t wait to reveal the Grange’s ghostly activity is just badly leveled floorboards and a drafty old house. More than a few surprises await him at the Grange, including its prickly, reclusive owner. Tristan Pryce is much less insane and much more attractive than Wolf wants to admit, and when his team releases a ghostly serial killer on the Grange, Wolf is torn between his skepticism and protecting the man he’s been sent to discredit.
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A paranormal investigator is hired to investigate ‘haunted’ Hoxne Grange, owned by the lovely Tristan Pryce. The investigator’s team finds that it is indeed haunted and the investigators themselves are responsible for some wicked occurrences. A lovers’ quarrel between the two associates leads to a dangerous piece of jewelry finding its way into a portal to the beyond resulting in a manifestation of epic evil. But Dr. Wolf Kincaid is more than just a paranormal researcher who discredits supernatural scams and is possessing the knowledge to set everything to rights… Maybe. Wolf’s family legacy has been in service of the supernatural–something that runs counter to his chosen profession and he finds himself having to call upon it to undo the damage that’s been done.
Read the book in record time, bought the second one before I finished because yes yes yes this is terrific! Who would run a ghost inn? And who would lead a team to bust fake hauntings? Well… Read on to find out. 🙂
I love reading about psychic/skeptic pairings and I love Rhys Ford writing style, so this was a very enjoyable story for me. Apart from a wonderful cast of characters, it was funny, slightly sarcastic and very vivid.
I loved Tristan. He is so kind and so innocent in some ways, yet he still stands up to his family when they malign him, his uncle Mortimer or the purpose of the Grange. He never fit what was normal, he was always on the outside yet he feels useful when he sees guests of the Hoxne Grange on their final journey. But when his family makes another attempt to take away his home, he reluctantly agrees to let a group of paranormal investigators in to prove once and for all that Grange exists for a reason, and that he needs to be left alone.
Wolf is a skeptic through and through. He sees this opportunity as a way to prove that Tristan is not only delusional but that ghosts really don’t exist. Too many years of seeing frauds make him reluctant to accept even the idea of paranormal. What he does not expect is to be proven wrong, and to find a man who will break down his walls, and to have a mulligan with his family’s beliefs. It was hard to warm up to him but when he finally believed, he became so protective and tender with Tristan. It was hard not to like a man who played ball with a spectral jack terrier.
Both men jump both feet into a steamy affair that just might last longer than the case. Wolf makes Tristan laugh, he makes him a bit reckless and a lot fierce. Tristan shows Wolf that there are some things that can’t be explained but they still exist, and it’s alright to take things on faith alone. When a simple misstep opens a door for malicious spirit to come in and inflict damage, it takes ingenuity, family connections and tons of grainy condiments to survive. It was thrilling and a bit gory in the end, and I loved it! I highly recommend it!