Stories about ghostly hauntings haunt readers around the world. This spooky series features one real-life ghost story per book, written in a can't-put-it-down narrative style. Fact boxes and skeptic's notes give readers real-world context for these frightening tales, including the legendary Bloody Mary and Bell Witch ghost stories.

In this ghostly guide to the haunts of East Texas, you’ll find many strange tales... • The spirit of a young bride who etched her name in her bedroom window glass on her wedding day many years ago, and continues to visit that room to this day... • An old, creaking staircase where phantoms from a time long ago wander up and down during the wee hours of the night... • An Indian brave in full battle regalia who is said to appear at the site of a terrible East Texas massacre... You'll read about these spirits and many, many more – all from the Pineywoods region of the Lone Star State.

Stories tell of strange occurences that defy logical explanation.

Jack is not a normal boy. He can talk to ghosts. In his new home, an aging farmhouse, he meets the Ghost Mother, a grief-stricken spirit who becomes very attached to him...too attached. He learns that the Ghost Mother is preying in the cruelest imaginable way on four child ghosts who are trapped in the house, stealing their energy to sustain her own. Before Jack can figure out how to help them, the Ghost Mother takes possession of his real mother’s body. Jack wants to fight back, but he has severe asthma and risks fatal attacks with any physical exertion. It will take all his resources, and his mother’s as well, to fight off the Ghost Mother and save the ghost children from a horrible fate.

'It's enthralling stuff, mixing the scholarly with the accessible and placing storytelling right at the heart of the human experience.' - History Revealed 'A fascinating journey' - Yorkshire Post 'Marvellous...Finkel is an expert in Mesopotamian cultures at the British Museum, and is one of the most clever, and nicest, of people it has ever been my pleasure to encounter...A fascinating journey' - The Scotsman There are few things more in common across cultures than the belief in ghosts. Ghosts inhabit something of the very essence of what it is to be human. Whether we personally 'believe' or not, we are all aware of ghosts and the rich mythologies and rituals surrounding them. They have inspired, fascinated and frightened us for centuries - yet most of us are only familiar with the vengeful apparitions of Shakespeare, or the ghastly spectres haunting the pages of 19th century gothic literature. But their origins are much, much older... The First Ghosts: Most Ancient of Legacies takes us back to the very beginning. A world-renowned authority on cuneiform, the form of writing on clay tablets which dates back to 3400BC, Irving Finkel has embarked upon an ancient ghost hunt, scouring these tablets to unlock the secrets of the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians to breathe new life into the first ghost stories ever written. In The First Ghosts, he uncovers an extraordinarily rich seam of ancient spirit wisdom which has remained hidden for nearly 4000 years, covering practical details of how to live with ghosts, how to get rid of them and bring them back, and how to avoid becoming one, as well as exploring more philosophical questions: what are ghosts, why does the idea of them remain so powerful despite the lack of concrete evidence, and what do they tell us about being human?

Tuck this book under your arm, jump in your car, and get ready to discover the ghosts of North Texas! These aren't tall tales-these are stories about places you can visit on your own ghost-hunting excursion!

Presents eighty-four scary tales.