Ami's Hoard

It has been several months since the event at Reyhome Castle, where Henry Strauss was successfully test his Electro-Séance machine to help eradicate ghost haunting. He also had teamed up with medium Vincent Night and Elizabeth Devereux and formed Strauss, Night & Devereaux: Occult Services in his home city, Baltimore. With this, Henry thought that he finally would be able to join Baltimore Psychical Society.

Unfortunately, they rejected him and told Henry he was partially responsible of the death of Reyhome Castle's owner. Devastated and afraid that Vincent would regret coming to Baltimore to be with him, Henry lied to everyone and said that his invention was welcome. Then, a Mr. Emberey requested the team to help with ghost haunting over at Devil’s Walk, Pennsylvania, where they would join Sylvester Ortensi, an old friend of Vincent and Lizzie's teacher...

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With the second book of Jordan L. Hawk's latest Spirits series, I have definitely have warmed myself towards Henry, Vincent, Lizzie, and Jo. I thought it was better than the first book, especially related to the characterizations. Gone was the dismissive attitude of Henry (towards medium) or the rudeness of Lizzie. Instead, we have a new 'team' (other than Whyborne/Griffin/Christine) that was pretty solid (except when Vincent found out about Henry's lie) which charmed me from the very get go.

The haunting case was solid (and pretty creepy) and it kept moving foward in a quick measured pace. I loved everything about this -- from the legend to the revelation on who was responsible for bringing the ghost back to the town, including a twist that complicated everything. I was a little bit weary about the 'secret' that Henry kept from Vincent though. I am not a big fan of 'lie as plot device' and each time Henry thought that he had done a big mistake of keeping the lie a little bit longer, I longed to knock him in his head. BUT, it also brought a very sweet romantic moment between Henry and Vincent, so I guess it was somehow okay ...

I totally look forward to be in the company of these people again. I am so in with each new adventure with Henry and co. I do hope that Hawk keeps this story as 'straight occult / ghosts' series rather than combining some urban fantasy elements. Don't get me wrong, I love Whyborne and Griffin series too ... but sometimes the whole thing with

just a little bit too bizarre *lol*