First Chapter Review: Ghost Hampton by Ken McGorry

Ghost Hampton is a paranormal thriller by Ken McGorry. The author is touring with Pump Up Your Book this month.

BLURB:  Lyle Hall is a new man since his car accident and spinal injury. The notoriously insensitive Bridgehampton lawyer is now afflicted with an odd sensitivity to other people's pain. Especially that of a mysterious young girl he encounters outside a long-abandoned Victorian house late one October night. “Jewel” looks about 12. But Lyle knows she’s been dead a hundred years. Jewel wants his help, but it’s unclear how. As if in return, she shows him an appalling vision—his own daughter's tombstone. If it’s to be believed, Georgie’s last day is four days away. Despite Lyle’s strained relations with his police detective daughter, he’s shocked out of complacent convalescence and back into action in the real world.

But the world now seems surreal to the formerly Scrooge-like real estate lawyer. Lyle’s motion in court enjoining the Town of Southampton from demolishing the old house goes viral because he leaked that it might be haunted. This unleashes a horde of ghost-loving demonstrators and triggers a national media frenzy. Through it all strides Lyle’s new nemesis in high heels: a beautiful, scheming TV reporter known as Silk.

Georgie Hall’s own troubles mount as a campaign of stationhouse pranks takes a disturbing sexual turn. Her very first case is underway and her main suspect is a wannabe drug lord. Meanwhile, Lyle must choose: Repair his relationship with Georgie or succumb to the devious Silk and her exclusive media contract. He tells himself seeing Georgie’s epitaph was just a hallucination. But a few miles away the would-be drug lord is loading his assault rifle. Berto needs to prove himself.

COVER: This seems like such a calm and pretty cover for, what I expect to be, an action-packed novel. The first chapter certainly makes it sound more edgy than this peaceful beach scene. Don't get me wrong, I really like the cover; but I am thinking it would be better suited for a family drama or a romance novel. That said, it might be right for the setting. It just doesn't speak to the genre for me.

FIRST CHAPTER: The reader meets 55-year-old Lyle, whose life was forever changed by the car accident that left him paralyzed. The tense relationship between Lyle and his daughter, Georgie, is also explored.

KEEP READING: Definitely. McGorry knows all about the hook. That first sentence pulled me in hook, line, and sinker. As a character-driven reader, I like that the focus is on getting to know Lyle and his circumstances a bit. It also has a powerful ending that makes you want to continue. I want to know more!


Series: Ghost Hampton
Paperback: 466 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (March 26, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1530577233
ISBN-13: 978-1530577231

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I received a digital copy of this book from the author through Pump Up Your Book. This First Chapter Review contains my honest opinions, which I have not been compensated for in any way.

Ken McGorry has been writing since third grade. (He learned in first grade, but waited two years.) He started a school newspaper with friends in seventh grade, but he’s better known for his 23 years as an editor of Post Magazine, a monthly covering television and film production. This century, he took up novel-writing and Ghost Hampton and Smashed are examples. More are in the works, like the promised Ghost Hampton sequel, but he’s kinda slow.

Ken lives on Long Island with his wife and they have two strapping sons. There are dogs. Ken is also a chef (grilled cheese, and only for his sons) and he enjoys boating (if it’s someone else’s boat). He has a band, The Achievements, that plays his songs (try https://soundcloud.com/ken-mcgorry). Back at Manhattan College (English major!), he was a founding member of the venerable Meade Bros. Band. Ken really was an employee of Dan’s Papers in the Hamptons one college summer, and really did mow Dan’s lawn.

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