Message from a Ghost

by Marilyn Ross, W.E.D. Ross (AKA)

Heiress Emily and Gale Garvis wait in terror as the Ouija board begins to reveal who will die next.... Emily Garvis is sure that their dead father is sending them messages through the Ouija board. Her sister Gale, more practical, believes that they come instead from Emily's troubled subconscious. In either case, the warnings are horrifying: madness and danger and death. Then Emily is brutally murdered in her own bedroom. Heartbroken and terrified, Gale realizes that her occasional mental blackouts may be the first symptoms of insanity - and that she, too, is doomed by the message from a ghost.

Genres: Horror, Gothic, Mystery

295 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1971

About the author

William Edward Daniel Ross, W. E. Daniel "Dan" Ross (born 1912) is a bestselling Canadian novelist from Saint John, New Brunswick who wrote over 300 books in a variety of genres and under a variety of mostly female pseudonyms such as Laura Frances Brooks, Lydia Colby, Rose Dana, Jan Daniels, Olin Ross, Diane Randall, Clarissa Ross, Leslie Ames, Ruth Dorset, Ann Gilmer, Jane Rossiter, Dan Ross, Dana Ross, Marilyn Ross, Dan Roberts, and W.E.D. Ross. As Marilyn Ross he wrote popular Gothic fiction including a series of novels about the vampire Barnabas Collins based on the American TV series Dark Shadows (1966-71).

Reviews

[Nattie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

I might have been more generous with the rating if Gale hadn't run around constantly screaming as she was running for her life, or fainting every other hour.

[Brett McLellan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really did NOT enjoy this book. It starts out with a resonably spooky premise: Two sisters live in a big empty mansion with their older cousin, who's looking after them now that their father has died. The younger sister, Emily, uses a Ouija board to contact their father's ghost, but older sister Gale is pretty sure it's all in her head.
But then (here's your spoiler warning) Emily is murdered and Gale goes off to a hotel to get over her sister's death, whereupon she is kidnapped. Most of the book is just Gale locked inside an abandoned theater, and every chapter or two she tries to escape but never pulls it off. The characters are boring, nothing much happens, and the whole plot is wrapped up in a quick summary on the last page.
It makes much more sense when you realize the author was pumping out as many as 6 books per year from the '60s through the '80s, and claims he wrote them all in 3 weeks or less. The only reason this gets 2 stars is because I finished it.

[Colton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps the most misleading title of any Ross book I’ve read so far. Still, it had a wild twist that made everything even more sinister. Part Phantom of the Opera, part crime thriller.

The Details:
“Ransom”
Abandoned theater
Evil Little Person
The worst kind of family man
Old Drunken Woman

[Arthur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick fast easy reading. Well written and interesting.