Haunted By Jeff Mariotte

HAUNTED
By Jeff Mariotte
Pocket Books (Simon & Schuster) - March 2002
ISBN 0743449509 PB
Adult / Young Adult
Horror/TV Tie-In

Reviewed by: Rachel A Hyde, MyShelf.Com
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At last the Angel novels have moved out of the first half of the first season and into the second season, complete with Wesley, Gunn, Wolfram & Hart and The Host. In a story that involves all of the above - and neatly draws on every haunted house story ever written - Cordelia thinks that she may have finally made it onto television. She is one of ten people selected to spend five nights in a notorious haunted house, and if she is still there at the end and hasn't been scared away or voted out, then she stands to win $100,000 and maybe get that elusive contract. It all seems a piece of cake - after all, who else works for a vampire and rooms with a poltergeist? But a very disfigured body has turned up not far from where she works and Angel & Co are investigating, plus a girl who didn't make the final ten and whom Cordelia got friendly with has gone missing…

This is one of the most entertaining Angel novels so far with all the show's elements up there and spinning happily, the added dimension of the beloved haunted house motif, and we even get a bit more of a peep into Gunn's life, although, as ever, the character remains a mere cipher and consequently rather superfluous. There is plenty of suspense, some humor, lots of action and things going bump in the night, so this is one to dive into and enjoy.