The Family Plot by Cherie Priest

 

Chuck Dutton can't believe his ears when the woman walks into his office at Music City Salvage.  It's a family business but times have been hard lately.  The woman is offering Chuck the rights to salvage anything he wants from her family mansion before it is razed to the ground in two weeks.  There are architectural details like tiled fireplaces and stained glass windows, hardwoods, cooper roofs and even furniture.  There are two outbuildings that have been locked up and untouched for decades.  He quickly writes her a check before she can change her mind.

Chuck needs to stay behind to run the business so his daughter, Dahlia, heads up the salvage team.  There's her brother Bobby and his son, Gabe plus a new hire named Brad.  The team plans to camp out in the old house as they strip everything and Chuck will come up on the last day to help drive everything back to the yard.

But there's something the owner left out.  Actually several somethings.  There are ghosts which the team starts seeing the first day.  There's a World War I soldier.  A young boy is in the attic.  There's a Southern lady who hangs out in her bedroom which is always locked except in the middle of the night.  And there's an evil spirit, an angry woman who wants them gone and will do anything she can to make that wish come true.

As the days pass, the attacks from the spirits intensify, both in frequency and attack strength.  Dahlia does what she can to find out the history of the family and soon has an idea of what is causing the anger and violence.  But can the team finish before they are finished off by the spirits?

Cherie Priest is an established author in the horror genre.  The reader will be drawn in by the unfolding of the family history and by the current relationships in the Dutton family.  The suspense builds unrelentingly and ends with a bone-chilling attack.  This book is recommended for horror readers.