A House Divided

A two-story clapboard house—split and turned into separate structures by greedy Louisiana contractor Keith Lafleur—stands at the center of this creepy Southern ghost story. One side houses Laura Toups, her sassy African-American friend Tawana Batiste, Tawana's mentally challenged cousin and their salon, the Beauty Box. Matt Daigle and his young son live on the other side, above the diner Matt runs. A series of haunting events—including bumps in the night, hundreds of dead birds on the lawn and a yard-spanning spider web—lead the residents to uncover the house's secret history and Lafleur to murderous insanity. LeBlanc (Grave Intent ) uses the haunted house plot to underscore the virtues of the two nontraditional families, giving her campfire story depth, and rounds out the enterprise with convincing dialogue and cinematic snapshots of Southern life. Though she leaves some loose ends, opting out with a well-placed "[t]here was a lot no one would ever know for sure," her emphasis on characters and their relationships make this an affecting spook story. (June)