The Spirits of Six Minstrel Run

By: Matthew S. Cox

Narrated by: Julia Collura

A move to the small town of Spring Falls, New York, is the perfect cure for Mia Gartner’s horrid commute. However, her new home isn’t quite empty.

She adored working in fine art restoration, but a two-hour ride each way got old fast. When her husband found a house for sale at a suspiciously low price, they jumped at it. Mia expected chemical contamination, a fixer-upper, or termites, so when the problem turned out to be persistent rumors of haunting, she set aside her worries. Adam hoped the place would propel his parapsychology hobby into a career.

Upon first sight, the innocuous suburban house filled Mia with dread. Adam had long maintained she had a psychic gift, but if she believed him, that would mean something terrible and dark once happened there.

Soon after their arrival, unexplained events prove the rumors are more than wild stories. A childlike spirit attaches itself to Mia, seeming harmless and so very lonely.

Alas, she fears the ghost may not be as innocent as it seems.

©2018, 2019 Matthew S. Cox (P)2019 Matthew S. Cox

Cool ghost story bogged down with distractions

As far as ghost/mystery stories go, this is an interesting affair. We start off with the usual "couple buys reportedly haunted house for less than market price" trope, but things go a bit of a different route from there. First, the husband is a paranormal nut. Second the wife is psychic. Third? Well, I won't ruin it, but let's just say they jump in feet first when it comes to these things.

The first third of the story plods along with Mia trying to figure out who is actually haunting the house. Is it the murdered little girl? A demon pretending? The girls' dad (and murderer)? The mother? All of the above? We get answers to these questions, but it also feels we didn't really need the questions to begin with. There was more than enough to keep the mind engrossed without the distractions.

Without revealing too much, the second act of the book basically sees our family fully embrace the crazy on seeming whim and do something that turns everything on its head. The book then fast forwards about 6 years to resume telling its story. While the transition was a tad jarring, but I ended up liking the last section of the book the best. It was more story and less pointless red herring distractions.

As for things that I didn't much care for, one would be that (as mentioned) the story had a number of red herrings that read more like the author came up with an idea suddenly and went with it instead of going back and revising things so that it flowed into the story and had some consequence. On the other hand, some revelations that should have been true "AHA" moments felt glossed over and overshadowed (indeed, a couple of them are just like "oh, so that must be it. cool."). The other would be that I think the book could have been more focused and condensed. There's a LOT that happens, especially early on, that just doesn't seem necessary for the end game. I also wish some of the ancillary characters were better developed. We get hints of some cool backstories, motives and personalities, but not much else. In fact, outside of Mia, the only character we spend any significant time inside the mind of is the priest (for about a quarter of a chapter).

I found Collura's narration to be, frankly, annoying. Firstly, it sounds like most of it was recorded in pieces and then glued together. The result of which is that you have sentences that change volume partway through, but more annoyingly, there are barely any pauses! A sentence ends and seemingly in the same breath a new chapter begins. Very distracting.

I also took issue with most of the voices used. In conversation, everyone seemed both bland and overly affected if possible. Some characters, like Willa, constantly talked in a breathy dramatic tone that was at odds with the author's description of the scene. She did have a very pleasant voice, however I'm not enthused to listen to another work narrated by her.

All that aside, I found the story enjoyable and would recommend it to those who enjoy ghosts and mysteries. I docked a star on story as I felt it was longer than it needed to be with unintentional (?) red herrings and forgotten characters.

I was provided this audiobook free of charge and am willingly leaving this honest review.

Great Read

The Spirits of Six Minstrel Run was a good read by Matthew S. Cox. Mia Gardner has a horrid commute and the move to small town Spring Falls, New York fixes that. But their new house has persistent rumors of being haunted. Her husband hopes that it will propel his parapsychology hobby into a new career.Quickly upon arrival there are unexplained events that there may be some truth to the rumors. I enjoyed reading this book and can’t wait to read more by the author.

The Spirit of Six Minstrel Run review

A fan of haunted house stories, I decided to give this a listen. It wasn't a mistake. This was really interestin and well worth it. Five stars.

The Spirits of Six Minstrel Run

This was a good ghost/haunted house story.It could have been better.I found the story fragmented in parts,dull and then over exuberant in parts. Who is haunting the house?Well,lets see ,who died there?It was a chaotic book.To me narration by Julia Collura was not quite right.Willa was breathy and weird sounding.The vicar was way too screechy.Some was ok.She had a lot to work with. A bit more editing and a calmer narration would do justice to this book. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.' 

Good Ghost Story

I really enjoyed listening to this paranormal book. I love ghost stories and this one has many twist and turns. The main characters are Mia (painting restorer), Adam (her husband and intrigued with the paranormal and psychology professor), Robin (7 yr. old girl ghost), Wilhelmina (medium/witch), Reverend Weston and Vic (Robin’s deceased father ? evil man ghost) You have to listen to get the horrifying action and find out if Mia is psychic, but did wonder about ending to see if Robin makes it to 8 and gets a sibling. Recommend if you enjoy creepy haunted house/ghost story. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. THANK YOU!