A dark holiday novel twists its way to hopefulness when a newcomer joins a Christmas Eve dinner. Bonnie Jo Campbell (Once Upon a River) invokes shades of Charles Dickens at a rural Michigan family gathering haunted by the memory of their brutal patriarch's death exactly nine years before; as the folks in Paw Paw told it, "The meanest man in town had been struck by lightning."
This year, Ma and the two youngest Whitbys, Beth and Trevor, welcome their brother, Doug, home from college with his girlfriend, friendly and positive Mary, who uses crutches. Beth wonders, "Could it really be that the woman's skin shone with light coming from inside her?" and young Trevor exudes Yuletide excitement. But the eldest daughter, Sister (called "Sissy"), is gruff, quaffing wine from her jelly jar and hoping to "make it through this meal without doing, saying, or hearing anything upsetting." Sissy is certain the guilt she harbors for her father's death has summoned him; she senses the "ghostly pounding" of the floorboards, a "foggy swirl of smoke" envelops the poinsettia, and "something or someone in the room [sighs] loudly" when Ma speaks of Daddy's death. Doug worries that Mary is a "pot stirrer" asking about the family's past, but her sincerity leads each Whitby to face truths of their violent history. "The whole family had been together that night nine years ago, but they had also each been alone in their fear." Tension in The Spirits heightens as the family recalls those horrors, but a credible storybook ending brings joy to them all, peaceful at last. --Cheryl McKeon, Book House, Albany, N.Y.