Ghosted (Vol. 1): Haunted Heist by Joshua Williamson,
In Ghosted (vol. 1): Haunted Heist by Joshua Williamson, we meet Jackson T. Winters, currently in prison after an armed robbery gone wrong. It turns out that his death wish is not simply because he hates living inside a prison; rather, it’s because of a supernaturally disturbing vision he had the day of the robbery — it turns out the casino they were robbing was built on an ancient and sacred burial ground. Also, in the course of the robbery, every member of his team dies but him, and he is left alone to be caught by the police. The story takes off when he hears gunshots while sitting on his bunk in his cell. In minutes, a woman, Anderson Lake, opens his cell, kills his two cellmates, and knocks him out. When he wakes up again, he’s held captive and given an offer he can’t refuse by Markus Schrecken.
Markus Schrecken has an enormously vast and valuable collection of occult books and materials. He lacks only one item in his opinion — a Ghost. So, he tells Jackson that he has a choice: He can either go back to prison or put together a team to break into the Trask Mansion and steal a ghost. The Trask Mansion is known for an unknown number of deaths over the years, and it’s currently slated for demolition. So, Jackson and his team have only a certain amount of time to get the ghost and get out.
Jackson puts together a team with Robby Trick, a magician and occult specialist; Jay and Joe Burns, TV celebrities known for tracking down ghosts on film for their TV show; Edzia Rusnak, a psychic who may or may not be the real deal; and to round things off, Oliver King, a skeptic to keep them all grounded in reality. But even King starts to become a believer by the end of volume one. Of course Jackson is supposed to lead the group, but his leadership may only be of the most superficial kind since the deadly Anderson Lake, dressed all in black like a classic movie spy, is always with them to do the bidding of her mysterious boss Markus Schrecken.
I really enjoyed Haunted Heist, Volume 1 of Ghosted, and since there are three more volumes, I was surprised that this one wrapped up the story fully with complete closure. It’s a fun comic, and I highly recommend it to any fans of horror, particularly tales of haunted houses, possession, and revenge from beyond the grave!
It does look like a fun one. I am a sucker for heist stories.
On the subject of haunted houses, I’m putting in a plug here for “And Yet” by A.T. Greenblatt, one of the current crop of Nebula short story nominees (reviewed in today’s SFM column on our site). It’s more SF/theoretical physics than horror, so maybe not to everyone’s taste, but Skye and I both really liked it.