Written in an easy, lighthearted manner, author Jeff Belanger takes us on a paranormal road trip through New England, where we get to visit all things weird and spooky. The South has its own creepy tales and urban legends, but New England really knows how to deliver when it comes to the paranormal.
Our first stop on our proverbial road trip is Connecticut, where we meet David Sherman, a poor soul who, in 1771,was struck by lightning while attending church services. Yep, he bought it right there in the sanctuary. No one knows why the Almighty had it out for him and the other two men who died during the strike, but I’m sure the rest of the congregates made sure they kept the offering plate full.
Then there’s the widow of a whaler captain who went to sea with him. When Captain Sluman Gray died unexpectedly off the coast of Guam, she refused to have him buried at sea but insisted that he be returned to the family cemetery in Connecticut. So the crew stuffed his remains into a rum barrel, where he stayed for over a year. When they finally returned to their home port, the captain’s remains were too mortified to remove from the barrel, so they had him buried, barrel and all, in a cemetery in Lebanon, Ct.
I’m always up for a UFO report, and New Hampshire doesn’t disappoint. The first encounter with an unknown object was documented by Governor John Winthrop, a Puritan founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. On March 1, 1639, Winthrop recounts the tale of a good and sober man who witnessed a strange light in the sky near Muddy River. The sighting lasted for several hours, then disappeared. The witness also seems to have experienced missing time, as he realized suddenly that the tide was going out.
While we’re on the subject, there is the Betty and Barney Hill UFO incident that occurred in 1961. They told their story multiple times, and never once did the Hills alter their report. Do I believe them? Yes, I do. I think it is one of the very few legitimate abduction reports to date.
Next, we move into little Rhode Island that’s got vampires, werewolves and a woman who laughed herself to death. Vermont has its own haunted police academy, a strange tower in the woods that was once part of an insane asylum, and the curious Bellows Falls petroglyphs that were discovered in 1789 and continue to baffle experts to this day.
And then there’s Maine. Here you’ll find witches’ curses, haunted lighthouses and a ghost moose. Yes, a ghost moose. But of the most intriguing stories from Maine is about a being called Razor Shins. His story ranks right up there with Michael Myres or Leatherface and probably deserves its own horror franchise.
The tale comes from lumber camp lore, where an angry Native American named Razor Shins appears as human, except his shins are blades. Razor Shins can decapitate someone with a single kick, and often does. Stories of dead lumberjacks were attributed to Razor Shins. The only way to placate him, it is said, is to leave a pint of his favorite whiskey outside your tent and hope for the best.
This is such a fun book. I really enjoyed reading the stories. S, and there are so many more stories inside. Some were familiar to me, but many were not. But I think the one that stuck with me the longest, notwithstanding the spectral moose, was the captain who was pickled in a rum barrel. There is something about one story that I can’t quite get out of my head. Maybe I should make my own road trip to New England to visit his grave. Maybe leave him a pint of Captain Morgan?
~review by Patricia Snodgrass
Author: Jeff Belanger
New Page Press, 2025
p.$23.95, pp. 225
