I received an early reviewer copy of Ghosts Walk the Shenandoah in return for an honest review. I had not read The Murderer's Apprentice, the first book in Daryl Anderson's Murderer's Apprentice series so went back to fill in the beginning of main character's Dara Burke's story. I was hooked and headed right into Anderson's second book.

Burke is a feisty girl in the first book and has grown into a somewhat sullen but still feisty teenager in the second. In this book, Dara finds herself far away from her beloved Baltimore, visiting the small town of Black Springs, West Virginia, with her aunt to attend a family wedding. Pretty quickly things turn ugly as Dara meets the wild, somewhat strange daughter of her aunt's fiancé. When he is murdered, Dara moves into detective mode, drawing on what she learned three years before when she solved a series of grisly murders in her hometown, including the ability to commune with the dead. As before, Dara finds herself and her family in grave danger.

The supernatural elements add an element of deeper mystery to this story that had me turning pages as trying to work out the murderer and the other secrets that haunt Black Springs. Dara is a fearless and fascinating young woman and we also get in depth looks at the other characters as well, especially her aunt who travels with her. ( )