This September I wanted to tackle the last series by Helen Phifer that I haven’t read yet which is the Annie Graham series. This series has 6 books in total and I’ve just finished the first one.

The first book in this series is called ‘The Ghost House’ and is a very good beginning of the series. I was a bit confused since Annie is on leave in this book but once the story got going, I got invested and was thrilled to say the least. This first book has a paranormal aspect to it which had me thinking about another series Helen has written.

After a horrific incident involving Annie and her husband, Annie has taken a leave of absence from her work at the police station. Not really having a home to go to the arrangement she made with her brother couldn’t have happened at a better time. He was due to visit their mother in Italy but as a caretaker of an abandoned mansion he couldn’t leave the premises unattended and his dog Tess couldn’t travel with him. Giving Annie a place to stay and recuperate in a time where she really needed some seclusion. Going for a walk and inspecting the old house hasn’t been broken in to, she has some Déjà vu feeling, as if she’s coming home so to speak. When wandering around and having a look through the rooms that are all run-down but somehow when walking into a room that looks like it has been a school room once, she gets some kind of hallucination, feeling anxious and a bit scared but also seeing how the room looked 100 years prior. When she snaps back to the present there is a diary lying on the floor which Annie takes to her little farmhouse that is housed on the premises.

A girl has gone missing, Jenna White – last seen near Abbey Road which is near the old mansion. The CID has taken on the case and are canvassing in the neighborhood where Annie is staying. Jake and Will knock on the door of the little farmhouse and Jake is flabbergasted to see Annie is residing there since she dropped of the face of the earth after her accident. Annie tells them she hasn’t seen anything amiss in the old mansion but if they want, they can go and check for themselves. Will is the station’s playboy but among seeing Annie something in him shifts and he can’t stop thinking about her.

While the case takes on a more serious note, there is something happening with Annie as well. Annie seems haunted by something. Seeing apparitions and colder spots in the house it takes a toll on Annie’s mental health.

The killer can’t seem to get enough of killing, nothing really satiates his need. There is this anger – hot feeling building inside of him and when it rises to an all-time high, he’ll kill. The cellar in the old mansion being his sacred ground, he does kill outside of it, not wanting to sully his sacred ground with killings that didn’t mean anything to him. Once he laid eyes upon the woman staying at the old farmhouse, he has promised himself that she’ll be the moment suprême but her male guests are making it hard for him to strike.

Will the killer eventually be able to snatch up Annie? If so, how will it end? What actually happened to Annie to go on sick leave and drop of the face of the earth?

A solid ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ star read!