THE HAUNTED HEART OF AMERICA

The Haunted Heart of America, Logan Corelli, Llewellyn Publications, Woodbury, MN, 2018, 240pp, $16.99.

Dr. Corelli has been investigating allegedly haunted locations for almost 20 years. In The Haunted Heart of America he takes us to eleven, plus he shares residential investigations in the final chapter. He’s visited some of the locales previously, and some are new. It was interesting that he visited some sites on multiple occasions and documented different events on each visit.

        In the introduction, Dr. Corelli explains that the book includes “all anomalous activity as well as personal impressions”, adding that “my theories about the paranormal and my investigative methods are my own.” If you’re used to certain procedures from “ghost hunting” groups on TV, understand that Dr. Corelli’s methods may differ.

        Each allegedly haunted site has a history, and Dr. Corelli gives some background, which I found helpful, as I was unfamiliar with several locales, and there was new information (for me, at least) on some sites I already knew about.

        Not all “haunted locations” have activity, which is to be expected. I suppose TV ghost-hunting shows leave out investigations where nothing happens because they want to show all the “good stuff”; an investigation without results would be boring TV. In one instance, Dr. Corelli readily admitted, “I would have to say that it is possible [location] could be haunted, but we didn’t experience anything while we were there.” It was, however, interesting to read how Dr. Corelli and his team set up the investigation, and I wondered if he had discounted the incident of a “missing” piece of equipment which suddenly showed up.

        Dr. Corelli’s investigators varied in number and group members, and I enjoyed reading how different people acted/reacted in certain situations. I don’t know if I’d be brave enough to lay on a morgue slab tray in a body cabinet or be locked alone in a haunted hospital! Reading about a team member vomiting after stepping onto allegedly haunted property was unnerving, especially with what happened to the rest of the team afterwards and on subsequent visits to the site. In one instance, I wondered if the team had encountered a Hell Hound!

        Dr. Corelli shares EVP sessions that—perhaps not at the time of the investigation—yielded ominous threats or creepy responses to questions. He also shares photos of faces in windows and mysterious orbs.

        I enjoyed The Haunted Heart of America. I couldn’t put it down, and as I read into the wee hours of the morning, I jumped at each sound. Was that the wind? Did that sudden chill come from the air conditioning coming on? Was the scratching sound just a tree branch grazing a window pane?

        I recommend The Haunted Heart of America for anyone interested in ghosts, hauntings, and ghost hunting. No, not all investigations resulted in unnerving events, but there were times I was sure that, if Dr. Corelli and his team had just turned that last corner at the end of the hall….

-          Shawna Caine