I love a good ghost story. I was especially fond of them as a child when I would read collections of various regional ghost stories. They were always scary good fun. Ghost stories are harder when you get older - maybe the best ones have already been written? I hate to think that.

I often read non-fictional accounts of hauntings, mostly to see what happened and how people integrated what happened into their lives. Ghost Under Foot seemed like a great choice - the story of a police detective finding his house haunted and his steps towards investigating what was happening. Unfortunately this is one of the most boring ghost stories I've ever read.

The author seems dead set on proving the existence of this spirit 3 billion times over - that's at least the number of times he describes filming and seeing orbs and using dowsing rods to communicate. After the first few descriptions of his investigative techniques the whole thing turns into an enormous snooze fest. You begin to pray for the arrival of a Greater Demon to each this guy's camera along with his head. Once he begins dowsing for "yes" and "no" answers on various things about spirit life as well as spirit perspectives on past and future events I wanted to pull my brain out through my ears.

I've never thought it mattered whether or not ghosts "really" exist - it only matters if you believe them. Sometimes these experiences can be life-changing and other times they just enhance what's already there - whether that's things being thrown about the house or the utter boring parts of every day existence. Sadly, this was utter boring and I can't recommend it, although I do admire the author's sheer stamina in the repitition of the same act over and over and over again. ( )

Not sure I believe in ghosts but I do have a daughter who drags ups to hotels and restaurants that have the reputation of being haunted. I enjoyed reading about the family visiting the hotel in Fort Collins, Colorado and found their experiences there quite chilling. As for their house being haunted I think it would have been related better had a little less time been spent on orbs and photographs, which after a while got quite repetitive. Did very much enjoy when they started researching the possible identity of the ghost and liked reading about the history of that person, Mary Bell. ( )