cover image No One’s Home

No One’s Home

D.M. Pulley. Thomas & Mercer, $15.95 trade paper (400p) ISBN 978-1-5420-4154-6

Set in Shaker Heights, Ohio, this formulaic supernatural thriller from Pulley (The Unclaimed Victim) offers few surprises. In 2018, Myron and Margot Spielman decide to buy and renovate a derelict house, despite the broker’s telling them that numerous “urban legends have sprung up about the house,” including the murder of the original owner and the death there of a high school girl from a drug overdose. Sure enough, soon after the Spielmans move in with their teenage son, Hunter, they have reason to believe the legends. Inside his closet, Hunter discovers the words “DeAD GIRL! DeAD GIRL! RuN!” in “slashing red letters” on the walls. A friend of Hunter’s later asks him whether he’s familiar with the movie Poltergeist. Meanwhile, Margot, who poses nude online to relieve her boredom, suspects that she’s being watched by someone in her home. Flashbacks to 1929, 1990, and 2008 contain clichés such as an old woman who warns of doom. Average writing and limp characters don’t help. This haunted house story fails to impress. (Sept.)