Summary

In “Prologue: July 1,” Ewan Holt writes in his novel that one week after he and his wife moved into Baneberry Hall, their five-year-old daughter, Maggie, asked him to check for ghosts. Ewan checked under the bed, in the closet, and in a massive, antique armoire that sat in her room. Ewan chose that room for Maggie because of the armoire, it was a literary touch that reminded him of the Chronicles of Narnia. He tried to assure Maggie that ghosts did not exist, but she claimed she had seen them. She claimed that one, Mister Shadow, said they were going to die there.

In “One,” Maggie writes in her novel that as soon as she enters the lawyer’s office, she realizes that the receptionist has read “the Book,” (9) as Maggie calls her father’s novel. Because Maggie is at the lawyer...