Customer Reviews

The Laughing Ghost

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This is a gothic romance story, a little corny but still fun. It's definitely not a serious story, but it's a good read on a rainy afternoon.

Felicity Valentine (a name for a romantic heroine if I ever heard one) is a wild young woman. Her uncle, Lynnford Carstairs is worried about her future and the future of the Carstairs estate, which she will inherit when he is gone. Shortly before he dies, he comes up with a plan to make Felicity take life more seriously and learn some responsibility. He has his lawyer trace the Carstairs family tree and locate a young man who also bears the name of Lynnford Carstairs (Lynnford is a traditional name in their family, so this isn't as hard as it might sound.), and he changes his will to say that this young man must live at Carstairs for a year and that he and Felicity will each receive only a hundred pounds to live on for the entire year in order to learn the value of being thrifty. At the end of the year, Felicity can have the Carstairs estate, and young Lynnford will receive a share of the old Lynnford's money, unless the two of them marry, in which case they can share equally in the estate immediately. Felicity is stunned when she hears the terms of the will, but she is determined to make the best of the situation and prove that she is more responsible than her uncle believed. The young Lynnford, called Lynn, is surprised to hear of the bequest from this wealthy but previously unknown relation. However, being a starving author, he agrees to stay at the estate for the year. The estate has a resident ghost, a lady who died when she became lost in the caverns under the house and whose mad laughter can still be heard through the walls. Part of the old Lynnford's will states that if Lynn wishes to stay at Carstairs, he must become reconciled to this mysterious ghost, and Lynn is determined to do that once he realizes that Felicity is the young woman he saw in London and fell in love with from a distance. However, a wealthy American playboy is already proposing to Felicity, and a pair of dangerous criminals with a fortune in diamonds to smuggle out of the country enter on the scene. As the situation becomes stranger and more complicated, the ghost's laughter is heard once again, and Lynn, still determined to win Felicity's love, tries to discover the secret behind the laughing ghost.