Bag Of Bones

By NADYA LABI

A bag of bones is what Thomas Hardy supposedly deemed even "the most brilliantly drawn character in a novel." Mike Noonan has been unable to find his bag since his wife's death left him with a nasty case of writer's block. His nights are haunted by her ghost and visions of Sara Laughs, his summer home named after a "Negro" singer from the 1900s. Mike returns to that home to confront its secrets. An exorcism is in order, but that task is interrupted by Mike's battle to save a leggy blonde and her daughter from a ludicrously evil duo. Alas, the novel's spirits have more flesh than the humans, who barely qualify even as bags of bones.

--By Nadya Labi