The night held them in a ghostly embrace... Ghouls on the loose Every October in Beardsville, Vermont, the macabre was customary and neighbors were more likely to borrow eye of newt than a cup of sugar. It was all in fun, though ...or was it? Lauren Kent knew someone was spooking this town, and it wasn't Casper the Friendly Ghost. Where she saw peril, the townsfolk saw only pranks-even true crime writer Sam Burdett. About the only thing they could agree on was that their attraction was dead-on ...until scarecrows started walking the streets of Beardsville and haunted houses told their own tales. Lauren had become the next target of the eerie specter--and to save her, Sam knew he had only a ghost of a chance.