Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Siren and The Specter
    Unavailable
    The Siren and The Specter
    Unavailable
    The Siren and The Specter
    Ebook415 pages5 hours

    The Siren and The Specter

    By Jonathan Janz

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    Listen to the audiobook instead

    About this ebook

    "Worth every bit of praise it has received so far, The Siren and the Specter should definitely be on your top 10 list of horror books." - The Splatter Geist


    Goodreads Choice Award finalist for Best Horror


    When David Caine, a celebrated skeptic of the supernatural, is invited by an old friend to spend a month in “the most haunted house in Virginia,” he believes the case will be like any other. But the Alexander House is different.  


    Built by a 1700s land baron to contain the madness and depravity of his eldest son, the house is plagued by shadows of the past and the lingering taint of bloodshed. David is haunted, as well. For twenty-two years ago, he turned away the woman he loved, and she took her life in sorrow. 


    And David suspects she’s followed him to the Alexander House.


    FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launching in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFLAME TREE PRESS
    Release dateSep 6, 2018
    ISBN9781787580084
    Author

    Jonathan Janz

    Jonathan Janz is the author of more that fifteen novels and numerous shorter works. Since debuting in 2012, Jonathan’s work has been lauded by Booklist, Publishers Weekly, The Library Journal, and many others. He lives in West Lafayette, Indiana. Jonathan Janz grew up between a dark forest and a graveyard, which explains everything. Brian Keene named his debut novel The Sorrows “the best horror novel of 2012.”

    Read more from Jonathan Janz

    Related to The Siren and The Specter

    Related ebooks

    Horror Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Submerged

      Dec 1, 2021

      When I was 14, I lost my virginity to David Flower, the future congressman. My parents had moved us, the summer before, from Cambridge to West Virginia. They were junior co-hires in public health at WVU, but they wanted to live way out in the country

      24 min read

    • Article

      Skein Is land

      Nov 6, 2019

      Skein Is land
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Turn Of The Tide

      Sep 24, 2020

      The Turn Of The Tide
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Shortest Day

      Oct 13, 2017

      The Shortest Day
      10 min read

    • Article

      ABATH For All SEASONS

      Jul 4, 2019

      ABATH For All SEASONS
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Stele For Marcus

      Apr 1, 2024

      A Stele For Marcus
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Clues To ROMANCE

      May 4, 2021

      The Clues To ROMANCE
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Writer extra YOU CAN’T FIND THIS IN PRINT.

      Feb 1, 2020

      1. BIRDS, AGAIN ashwell, massachusetts, 1871 Wonders, wonders! —miles pearson, the darkening glass (p. 4) The first of the birds Caroline mistook for her own mind’s work. When the streak of red crossed the kitchen windowpane, fast, disastrous-bright,

      9 min read

    • Article

      Elvis Isn’t Dead

      Jun 15, 2023

      Elvis Isn’t Dead
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Buddha of Mount Street

      Feb 23, 2017

      The Buddha of Mount Street
      5 min read

    • Article

      Small Town Magic

      Apr 23, 2020

      Small Town Magic
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Snow QUEEN

      Dec 9, 2020

      The Snow QUEEN
      6 min read

    • Article

      Davis Reynolds

      Nov 1, 2022

      Davis Reynolds
      5 min read

    • Article

      Rainbow Rainbow

      Jun 8, 2021

      As soon as Heidi arrived at Kim’s condo, she suggested they go meet LisaParsonsTwo, Kim’s online crush. Usually Kim was the rule-breaker, the wild girl whose mom let her do whatever she wanted, but Heidi hadn’t been able to stop thinking about LisaPa

      23 min read

    • Article

      The New Dynasties

      Oct 15, 2019

      The New Dynasties
      5 min read

    • Article

      My R75 000 Proposal

      Jun 11, 2021

      WEDDING proposals are kind of a big deal and these days the pressure is on to go bigger, bolder and be more creative than ever. It can be daunting – ask anyone who’s ever planned to pop the question. But sometimes the circumstances surrounding a prop

      2 min read

    • Article

      At Sea

      Apr 14, 2020

      At Sea
      16 min read

    • Article

      Up and AWAY

      Jan 26, 2022

      Up and AWAY
      3 min read

    • Article

      Kim Kills It!

      Oct 14, 2021

      Kim Kills It!
      2 min read

    • Article

      Covid’s Long Fingers

      Oct 20, 2021

      JUST when we thought it was safe to go back in the water, as in Jaws 2, Covid reminded us how sharp its teeth remain. For so long, we had been lucky to know no fatal victims of the lurgy, but recent weeks have brought the deaths of two friends. First

      2 min read

    • Article

      Black Tie – Worse Than The Black Death

      Dec 14, 2022

      It came as a shock recently to discover, in some long-abandoned cranny of this ravaged psyche, a residue of what felt like self-respect. Any epsilon male sunk deep into middle age, and deeper into irrelevance, has no business caring what others think

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Tale Of Two Dickens

      Nov 24, 2022

      A Tale Of Two Dickens
      8 min read

    • Article

      A Rumour Mill In Overdrive

      Jan 23, 2020

      A Rumour Mill In Overdrive
      2 min read

    • Article

      Magnets: Carried through time, lovers seek their purpose.

      Feb 6, 2014

      Moon Colony B, 2213 Former Ponzi-schemer Mary Pillar digs through a trashcan. It smells like rotten eggs and milk. She is elderly and homeless, living in an alley between two eco-efficient skyscrapers. Dust particles dance around her. She has lost ev

      11 min read

    • Article

      At Sea

      Oct 1, 2019

      At Sea
      16 min read

    Reviews for The Siren and The Specter

    4.5/5

    20 ratings6 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      “Far off, so softly he couldn’t be certain it existed at all, David heard the melody of the night before. Sorrowful. Yearning. The song cleaved his soul. The voice sounded like Anna’s.”Our main character, David, is an author that debunks well known haunted houses. The Alexander House is perfect, as a well-known debunker already stayed at the house. And disappeared. The beginning of the book is slow, but there’s a lot to be covered early on. This book isn’t very big, but it has multiple stories going on at once. Sometimes the haunted house almost seems like just a story playing in the background: David confronts his past, the various horror stories of the house’s past, and some very strange locals.What can really make or break books are secondary characters. If the people the main characters interact with are flat, then the story WILL fall flat. Janz didn’t let that happen. He created a world full of colorful and creepy characters that complimented his main character.Ralph is the first of the locals David meets. He’s a typical southern man, retired to a waterfront home to spend his days fishing and drinking. I loved this character. Usually when someone writes in a southern character, they make them really over-the-top and stereotypical. Ralph has his words of wisdom, a bit of paranoia, and hospitality enough to invite neighbors over for hamburgers. Sheriff Harkless is a sassy, snarky, doesn’t-put-up-with-anyone’s-poop character. I instantly loved her.The Shelby’s with their two kids: wow. There’s some very messed up family dynamics going on here, and David can somewhat see bits of his own childhood replayed in the eyes of Mike Jr.The story definitely earns the creep-factor. Full haunted house mode: noises, figures floating in water, phantom music and more. What adds more to the story is interactions with the locals that aren’t so…nice, and David’s history linked to a nearby park. It had me guessing if everything was a coincidence, if something was drawing our main character to the house, or if another party was slinking in the shadows. Worth the read for horror lovers; just don’t go up the stairs!
    • 5/5
      This is a great book. It has everything you want in a haunted house story. Sometimes the horror is subtle, but then it comes at you from an unseen direction and slaps you in the face.I loved how the book keeps you guessing about what's real, and the way secrets and truths were revealed about the characters. I won't talk about any specifics, because I don't want to risk creating spoilers, but I will say it's a real roller coaster of a book with a healthy dose of unexpected twists.If you enjoy a good haunted house horror story, you will love this.Many thanks to Flame Tree Press for the ARC. My review is my honest opinion.
    • 5/5
      One of the best horror books of the year! A Bram Stoker nominee waiting to happen! Once again, Janz thrills readers with a carefully-crafted, immensely emotional story dealing with the supernatural. The writing is a crisp and vivid as always with one of his books. Readers who haven't taken the opportunity to enjoy this fresh voice, need to find a copy of this book as soon as possible. This is one seriously haunting tale!
    • 4/5
      This was only the second book by the author I've read so far, but I can already recognize the author's unique voice. Again, Janz delivers a complex story packed with gory action and glimpses into the abyss of depravity, but also interludes of more subtle horror and an exceptional character depth. The broad variety found in this book makes it not just another haunted house/ghost story, but a unique sample of the finer art of horror.At first, I felt slightly overwhelmed by the different plot lines thrown in, but at the end everything fit perfectly together. I was eager to explore the history of the house and the peninsula, and to understand step by step how it came to be haunted. What got to me most though were the children, and seeing how their innocence was already crushed by human monsters long before any supernatural evil reached out for them.Regarding characters, it was fascinating to observe the transformation of the main character David. He fought so hard to maintain his belief in the non-existence of anything supernatural, but at some point he could no longer deny it, as it was staring him right in the eye. Oh, and at the beginning I was really amused by his jumpiness, which contradicted his matter-of-fact appearance.A very rewarding reading experience which more than fulfilled my expectations.(Thanks to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for a copy of the book, all opinions are my own)
    • 4/5
      3.5/5*

      Alexander House is the most haunted house in the state of Virginia. David Caine is perhaps the most well known debunk-er in the United States and as such, he is called in to stay at the house and write a book about it. The current owners are hoping that David will be persuaded into believing that the haunting is real, and that the resulting book about the matter will draw visitors/tourism to the home. Is David finally persuaded that ghosts and hauntings do exist? You'll have to read this to find out!

      My brief synopsis above doesn't do this story justice. Unfortunately, that's part of the problem I had with this book. There's a LOT going on-and to be honest? I thought it was too much. I loved the portions about the history of the house, the area where it's situated, and its former inhabitants-specifically Judson Alexander. I would have been happy with a book about him alone.

      I understand that this story has several layers and I respect what Jonathan Janz tried to do. However, I think the focus of this tale became too wide, what with tons of information about David's old girlfriend, his old friend Chris and Chris' new wife Katherine, the CRAZY neighbors down the way, the local sheriff, and I haven't even mentioned the siren yet! I was fine with all of it through about 2/3 of the novel, but by the last third it just got too busy for me. Yes, there were thrills aplenty and lots of surprises, but I felt like the denouement went on a bit too long, and tried to cover too much material.

      The writing itself though, was excellent, as I've come to expect from Mr. Janz. He created a tense and dense atmosphere-at times I felt I would surely suffocate from it. I also felt the characters were mostly realistic and while David Caine wasn't perfect by any means, I did come to care for him and I wanted him to pull through. This tale was imaginative and to restate, my only problem was that I wished it had been more focused.

      I seem to be almost the only one who isn't all-out raving about this story, so it's definitely possible that I read it wrong. Even with my complaint, I still enjoyed the heck out of THE SIREN AND THE SPECTER. You probably will too. Jonathan Janz is always worthy of your consideration and if you decide to give this one a go, feel free to come and share your thoughts with me when you're done. You can tell me how wrong I am!

      Recommended!

      *I received an e-ARC of this book from FLAME TREE PRESS via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it.*
    • 4/5
      Very entertaining story- characters included. There were a couple of scenes though that didn't quite wash with me which is why I didn't give it a full 5 stars i.e. toward the end when they're all standing in the middle of the road at a standoff and they all just decide to hop in the cars and ride together together to Alexander House like they weren't just being held at gunpoint and shot at a second ago. That segueway just wasn't very realistic to me.

      Also, how many times does David have to forget his keys or phone to realize that obviously is not a good idea! Come on seriously*face palm*

      Never a dull moment though and a good choice if you like hauntings and ghosts!

      Still wondering about the ending...would love a follow up story on the Siren.