Allie Telford is a Summoner, but she’s never summoned anything. Yet, she’s been sent on assignment to England to search for things that go bump in the night; if she doesn’t return with some kind of sighting, she’s out of a job.
Her adventures begin with a cast circle, dead man’s ash - and a sneeze. Suddenly, her circle contains a very disgruntled, ghostly apparition of a cat who promptly shows his disdain for what she’s done by hoisting a leg and cleaning his bottom.
She’s delighted with this small success and wanders in search of more ghosts. A chance meeting with a nearly naked hunk of a man, bleeding in the dank basement of a place deemed haunted by the locals only intensifies when he magically disappears before her eyes. A few days later at a book signing, she meets the mysterious man again.
Allie’s life has been difficult and she’s learned to be opinionated and tough. But she didn’t reckon with meeting the cat’s ghostly owner, Esme, who fusses over Allie, and gives her motherly advice on lovemaking, and the state of her unsexy underthings. Add Jem, a 15th century waiter who discovers modern television and changes his Shakespearean homeless look to gothic punk, complete with tattoos, pierces and a mohawk, and a very real man who won’t take no for an answer, and suddenly you find yourself laughing as the two protagonists butt opinions. The antagonists will anger you with their wickedness, and the ghostly characters delight you as they meddle into current day affairs with past life aplomb.
This book can be considered a romance novel of sorts, but it’s also delightfully written without being nauseating, and the author shows a great deal of understanding in the way men and women think. I’d recommend it for both men and women as a light read, especially if they can read about mystical things with an eye toward the absurd.

Release planned for Monday, April 05, 2004 at UIHC Main Entrance Lobby in Iowa City, Iowa USA.