“They’re baaaack …” (Marketing tagline for Poltergeist 2)

It is patently unfair to compare the brilliantly inventive efforts of author Tom Hoffman to the much inferior media attraction that purports to explain paranormal activity while preparing to discuss this fourth addition to the writer’s highly popular Ghost Ring Series: Specters of Caligo Woods. Still, Clara Barley and Simon Moody are indeed back in all their charming and humorous glory, and this latest installment detailing their spectral investigations into ghastly affairs only deepens one’s fascination with events “beyond the grave.” For the attentive, this episode comes with a few little cautionary snippets, such as that itty-bitty, teeny-weeny blurb tucked beside a back-cover image of a haunting waif-child and her bunny. It doesn’t bode well for any reader brave enough to venture inside.

“The brightest of angels cast the darkest of shadows.”

Indeed, Mr. Hoffman and his protagonist cohorts gravitate toward dark shadows that grow ever darker as the series progresses. After all, there is that Foul Beast that haunts the depths of Devil’s Lake, not to mention the murderess matron revisited from earlier episodes. Meanwhile, Clara and Simon are becoming inseparable as friends, partners, and possibly more, continuing to flirt and play around the edges of a deep, serious commitment. All of these ingredients—including the essential dash of Hoffman humor—combine to illuminate the darkness and resolve many age-old mysteries in the quaint, lovable, and darkly haunted town known as Caligo Falls. Angels can indeed cast dark shadows.