The latest installment into Kevin Ranson’s The Spooky Chronicles, The Terminal People, reintroduces the reader to Spencer aka ‘Spooky’ the little dead boy who continues to grow up. Spooky is now employed at Mrs. Gorgon’s Magic shop, a key location from the first book. A few years have passed since Spooky’s encounter with the Crooked Man and things have relatively returned to normal.
For those of you who aren’t aware of who Spooky is, he’s the little dead boy who continued to grow up, not exactly a zombie but still considered to be dead. He has the ability to see in different light spectrums and see an entities’ aura.
After a chance encounter with what Spooky assumes to be a drunken vagrant, he is shocked that the man dies almost as soon as he touches him in an effort to render aid. Mrs. Gorgon explains to Spooky that he has no such power. Not willing to leave this mystery alone, Spooky enlists the aid of the local librarian to take him to the airport in an effort to learn more about the man who died. Using the baggage claim ticket that he took from the man, Spooky attempts to bluff his way to getting the man’s unclaimed suitcase.
The mystery deepens when Spooky uncovers information that the dead man, Daniel, had been searching for the Magic Shop and quite probably, Spooky. Tracing the clues found in the case and on a PDA inside, Spooky goes to the hospital only to find that Daniel’s body has been shipped to the airport yet no one can remember any family member requesting that service. The clues don’t seem to add up as there was a photograph of Daniel’s wife yet she wasn’t at the airport or the hospital or even in town. Spooky knows he’s onto something strange when he sees a cab from the airport parked outside the magic shop and the driver intently watching him.
Spooky lets his dad know what he’s been up to while he’s been at work which leads to the standard parental comments that fall on deaf ears when both father and son see Daniel, the alleged dead man on the news during a live broadcast from the airport. The decision is made to return the suitcase to the airport and apologize for Spooky’s actions.
Spooky and his father are met by an airport official and several security personnel upon entering and whisked away to the security section of the airport. This is where Ranson’s writing style really shines as the reader is introduced to The Terminal People.
What Spooky stumbled upon is a realm of paranormal creatures that inhabit the airport and are known as the Terminal People not because they reside inside an airport terminal but because they allow people diagnosed with a terminal illness to remain ‘alive’ as long as they stay in an area that has a large concentration of life forces, like an airport.
This concept creates an interesting twist to the Spooky Chronicles as there is now a more involved underlying storyline then just Spooky and his adventures.
As I mentioned in my previous review of the first book in this series, it’s not exactly a zombie/horror/apocalyptic genre novella. The Spooky Chronicles is more a paranormal mystery series that has quasi-zombie elements to it. As an example, Spooky is technically a little dead boy who continues to grow up yet he’s not really a zombie. If he were a zombie based on the traditional lore and canon, he would be a rotting corpse with a thirst for human flesh and there would be no articulate speech or evolution. Kevin Ranson’s take on the genre brings out more of a mythological, paranormal mystery not a gore fest about survivors frantically trying to hold back hordes of the walking dead.
That is what makes this series so much more interesting.
Available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
