Where to start? I want to be madly in love with Karen White but, like a sketchy lover, she gets my hopes up then crushes me with this book. It’s book five in the Tradd Street series and this was a very good, super creepy book. But, only three stars because it was almost a re-working of book two: The Girl on Legare Street. There were parts that were so familiar I kept going back to book two to compare. This is much better than book two; as if Karen has a better handle on her characters and plots and gave it another go. Too bad it didn’t work as well as she (and I) hoped. The plot in this one is straightforward: Mellie goes back to work selling historic homes. A new client wants to unload hers in a hurry but of course there are ghosts and secrets and more money thrown into the pit that is Mellie’s house on Tradd Street. I will say the ghosty stuff in this one creeped me out and not in a good way. Some seriously spooky things happen that raised my neck hairs several times. That was the best part of this book. The bad parts were that Mellie is stupid again and so much of the plot is given away by the things she is ignoring or acting stupid about. More of Rebecca and Marc-gag and Sophie and her clothes-gag but in a fun way and more reasons to think Mellie was right way back in book one when she wanted to just burn the Tradd Street house down and move on! But, it wasn’t bad, just not up to the level of the last book. So, a pretty good scary story if you ignore the characters and their antics and just enjoy the scarefest. The kids are adorable and they and the dogs steal the whole show. Hopefully the next book gets back to the level of book four. 3 stars.