“Ghost Writer” by Arjay Lewis

Ghost Writer

Arjay Lewis
Mindbender Press (2025)
ISBN: 979-8989828142
Reviewed by Dawn Colclasure for Reader Views (12/2025)

“Why on earth did I want to play detective with a disappearance that was twenty years old?” Joe Riley asks himself in this story. “Because I had a ghost in my living room.”

Joe Riley is a novelist fresh out of a divorce, but on the same day he loses his house to his ex-wife, he inherits one: a cabin his uncle owned in the Poconos. Joe has many fond memories of visiting the cabin as a child, but he is surprised that it was left to him by his departed loved one.

Since he is now homeless, he decides to move in, and not even 24 hours pass by before something strange happens. Thus begins the novel Ghost Writer by Arjay Lewis, an entertaining and suspenseful ghost story of a writer’s experience living in a haunted cabin. But unlike most people living with a ghost, Joe’s experiences with this haunting range from a ghost co-writing his book at a typewriter to possessing another person who only wants to help the ghost find peace just as much as Joe does.

As Joe starts to adjust to the freezing temperature in his cabin and wakes up to the sound of typing coming from a typewriter in his living room, he starts to investigate. This is where his story takes an interesting turn; he learns that a woman who was an author disappeared in the early 2000s. I loved the variety of the characters he interacts with as he learns more about the missing author, who he believes is now haunting his cabin as a ghost.

But he is not content to just live with this haunting; he wants to know more about this ghost. And the more he learns, the more suspenseful and mysterious this story becomes. There were people telling him to “just drop it” when he kept asking questions about the missing author, and this made me wonder if they were keeping secrets or if they knew something about this author’s disappearance that they didn’t want anyone to find out. And when Joe discovers the horrifying truth about the author’s disappearance, he wants to go to the police, but even then, he is being held back.

This novel may be a supernatural suspense story, but the mystery really kept me reading it. I was hooked! It was impossible to stop reading this book, especially when there was a detective investigating Joe’s discovery and who kept hinting at clues and asking interesting questions. This story took on many surprising twists and turns, especially when a woman Joe is romantically interested in starts performing a cleansing ritual in the cabin, and the ghost reacts violently.

Every chapter brought new surprises, and many of them ended with cliffhangers. I kept trying to figure out the story as I kept reading it, and just like Joe, I kept trying to figure out who the guilty person was. I was drawn into this story, and the writing was so well-done that I was practically hanging on every word. The climax was a big surprise, and the story’s ending was very satisfying. I liked how all of the pieces fit together at the end, and everything was revealed.

Ghost Writer by Arjay Lewis is a gripping novel of suspense, terror, and mystery that will draw readers in with a powerful story of betrayal and intrigue. Filled with twists and surprises, it is a story that will keep readers turning the pages to uncover truths long buried and to find answers to questions left unasked. Fans of mystery novels, as well as ghost stories, may enjoy reading this book. It is certainly a unique story with an unexpected twist that will linger long after the story ends.