Wednesday, August 25, 2021

The Lodge by J.L. Bryan [Review]

The Lodge (Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper #15) by J.L. Bryan
Format: ebook
Source: provided for review
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: August 12, 2021

Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper
1. Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper
2. Cold Shadows
3. The Crawling Darkness
4. Terminal
5. House of Whispers
6. Maze of Souls
7. Lullaby
8. The Keeper
9. The Tower
10. The Monster Museum
11. Fire Devil
12. The Necromancer's Library
13. The Trailwalker
14. Midnight Movie
15. The Lodge - Paperback | Kindle
16. Cabinet Jack
17. Fallen Wishes
18. Sunset House
19. The Funtime Show
20. Miracle Mountain
21. Mortuary Manor

J.L. Bryan
| Website | Amazon |

Synopsis (Goodreads):
More than a century ago, the Sea Islands of Georgia's coastline were the playground of the ultra-wealthy. Carnegies, Morgans, Rockefellers and other aristocrats of the Industrial Age built luxurious southern beach retreats on islands like Cumberland and Jekyll to escape the icy winters of New York. In time, though, the grand mansions were abandoned and fell into disrepair, abandoned to the weather and the wilderness.

A secretive client hires Ellie Jordan to investigate one such island, home to a sprawling estate modeled after a royal hunting lodge. Weapons and artifacts from around the world adorn its grand hall. Finely furnished rooms devoted to leisure and games display the original owner's vast collection of hunting trophies, the preserved bodies of exotic predators from around the world, beasts with bared fangs and unblinking glass eyes.

Someone is trying to bring the neglected island back to life, but the dark shadows of its gilded past remain strong here, stalking the galleries and winding corridors. The mysterious grand lodge is more than it seems, and its restoration has unearthed horrific and unexpected evils. Ellie and Stacey must face the lodge's dark past and drive its paranormal inhabitants back into the world of the dead, before they can do more harm to the living.
Thoughts on The Lodge: Hoo-boy! Ellie and Stacey have a fresh case to tackle and...well, they aren't given much to go on at first and everything's shrouded in secrecy. Which, as you might imagine, makes their job a teeny-tiny bit more difficult.

Shuttled to a (creepy) island with a (even creepier) manor house and a whole lot of unexplained happenings, Ellie and Stacey have to sort through the former inhabitants and events that led to this place being a hotbed of ghostly activity. Throw in a WHOLE LOT of taxidermy (no thank you!) and a project manager who expects big results in a short amount of time (I'm having flashbacks to working on work projects now. Horrifying.) plus less than ideal living conditions (ghosts should NOT be allowed to just wander all willy-nilly through their sleeping areas, thankyouverymuch) and this entire case is a bit of a strain of our ladies.

The deeper they get into the project, the more they find and what they find is not cool. Not cool, at all. Kinda bloody and murderous, really. Not that I expected differently. I mean, how often do the investigative team get called in on well-adjusted ghosts? Rarely, is the answer. Rarely.

A whole lot of secrets, a tech billionaire with way too much money to burn and retinue that caused my eye to twitch, more secrets, blood, death, taxidermy, and an island full of ghostly inhabitants who just can't (or won't) let go. Ellie and Stacey are cut off from their regular resources and they have a LOT to deal with. Good thing they're both resourceful and hardy and ready to fight to keep people safe. *thumbs up*

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