The Girl in White by Lindsay Currie

The Girl in White by Lindsay Currie
Format:  E-ARC
Publisher:  Sourcebooks
Number of pages:  304
Published:  September 6th, 2022
Source:  Publisher via NetGalley  

Opening Line:  "I shuffle the photos around my desk, sorting the ones I like most into a special pile."

Mallory is disgruntled with her families move from Chicago to Eastport, Massachusetts.  It's hard to adjust to her new town when everything seems to reek of Halloween, including the restaurant that her parents now run.  Eastport is known for its legendary curses, supposedly their restaurant is even famous for a casket from Old Shadows Hill Cemetery that burst through one of their walls.  But the most famous curse is the legend of Sweet Molly, who cursed the town after her brother Liam died during a storm at sea.  Each year, Eastport celebrates the anniversary of Liam's death with costumes, a parade and this year the town is even planning a reenactment of Liam's voyage.  Just as the date of the festivities nears, Mallory begins to have strange dreams and even more frightening is the encounter she has with an old woman at the harbor.  When Mallory awakens one morning to her room filled with sand and no way to explain this unusual occurrence, she begins to suspect foul play.  Can it be Molly's ghost haunting her dreams and causing her to sleepwalk?  But what is she trying to tell her?  When Mallory's neighbor, Joshua has a similar experience to hers, she enlists the help of her friends, Emmie and Brie to help them unravel the mystery of Molly's curse and hopefully set things right.  

Lindsay Currie does spooky well. I've read and also enjoyed Scritch Scratch, The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street and What Lives in the Woods.  I must say they all are equally well written, not only for their fabulous settings, but also for the way that she develops the creepiness of the story.  There's a constant feeling of being watched.  She's a master at using environmental elements like lightning strikes or even the flickering of lights like in The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street to illicit some chills, as if the town wasn't enough with all its legends and curses, we also now have a ghost that appears to be bent on revenge.     The Girl in White is delightfully spooky and atmospheric, I'd pair this with Malamander by Thomas Taylor for some seaside creepy Halloween reads.  Also bonus that this book had me thinking about why we celebrate certain events in town?  Who does it serve?  **A huge thank you to Sourcebooks for the E-ARC via NetGalley**