How to Fake a Haunting

A desperate woman's plot to frighten her husband out of her life takes a nightmarish turn in a chilling novel of modern horror by a Bram Stoker Award-winning author.

Lainey Taylor is being pushed to the brink by her alcoholic husband, Callum. Prone to hallucinations and erratic behavior, it's only a matter of time before he puts Lainey's life--and that of their daughter, Beatrix--in jeopardy. A divorce and full custody is out of the question. In Callum's words: Over my dead body.

Lainey's sympathetic friend Adelaide has a wild solution. They'll stage a haunting so convincing it will drive Callum out of Lainey's life for good. Nothing too over the top: strange smells, noises in the walls, and flies unleashed along the windowsills. It could work. Considering Callum's alcohol-induced night terrors, he's already close to broken. With each new scare, Lainey is closer to seeing the haunting through to its bitter, freeing end.

But in a house filled with so much rage, resentment, and fear, is it any wonder that Lainey and Adelaide's plan goes horribly wrong? As their fake haunting spirals into something no one can control, Lainey discovers that the only way out of this frightening trap is to join forces with Callum, or die trying.

Author: Christa Carmen
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 10/07/2025
Pages: 349
ISBN: 9781662530746

About the Author
Carmen, Christa: -

Christa Carmen is the author of Beneath the Poet's House; The Daughters of Block Island, winner of the Bram Stoker Award and a Shirley Jackson Award finalist; Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked, an Indie Horror Book Award winner; and numerous short stories, including the Bram Stoker Award-nominated "Through the Looking Glass and Straight into Hell." She has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, an MA from Boston College, and an MFA from the University of Southern Maine. Christa lives in Rhode Island with her husband, daughter, and bloodhound-golden retriever mix. When she's not writing, Christa keeps chickens and uses a Ouija board to ghost-hug her dear, departed beagle. Most of her work comes from gazing upon the ghosts of the past or else into the dark corners of nature, those places where whorls of bark become owl eyes, and deer step through tunnels of hanging leaves and creeping briars only to disappear. For more information, visit www.christacarmen.com.