Ghosts of the Carolinas

By: Nancy Roberts

Narrated by: Barbara Creel-Benjamin

This collection of supernatural tales includes "The Talking Corpse"; "The Hound of Goshen"; "The Ring"; "The Phantom Rider of Bush River"; "The Witch Cat"; "The Gray Man"; "Tsali, the Cherokee Brave"; "The Ghost of Litchfield"; "City of Death"; "Treasure Hunt"; "House of the Opening Door"; "The Ghosts of Hagley"; "Return from the Dead"; "Whistle While You Haunt"; "The Brown Mountain Lights"; "Alice of the Hermitage"; "The Night the Spirits Called"; and "Swamp Girl".

©1962, 1967 Nancy Roberts; 1988 by University of South Carolina Press (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Narrator Barbara Creel-Benjamin's warm, believable delivery is perfect for these stories, based on actual events. Creel-Benjamin deftly builds tension in 'City of Death.' There's a rumor among the slaves of Wilmington that something nameless and faceless is carrying death. No one more calmly denies this than Dr. Dixon - that is, until he's called to the bedside of the daughter of a desperate-sounding man. In 'Swamp Girl,' Creel-Benjamin's homey voice describes the Spanish moss and night sounds as a young woman going to see her sick mother hitches a ride with the Tiptons, who are shocked when she suddenly vanishes. Mr. Tipton resolutely goes to the address where she was to be dropped off, and a shocking revelation occurs." (AudioFile magazine)

Slightly spooky Southern stories

Nancy Roberts wrote over twenty books, largely focusing on American folklore and ghost stories. Here, she presents eighteen tales from South and North Carolina.

It should be noted that as this book was originally published in 1962, some of its material comes across as rather jarring; in antebellum tales, slaves are called "Negroes," and while the Trail Of Tears is justly called one of the United States' most shameful moments, it is blamed on misinterpreted orders or lower-ranking officers who hated Native Americans, refusing to accept it as the policy of the government as a whole.

Beyond that, due to its age some of the material is out-of-date or very familiar. The "Brown Mountain Lights" don't actually date back nearly as long as Roberts claimed, making them less mysterious, and "Swamp Girl" is a version of a very common yarn.

Finally, "The Night The Spirits Called" goes on for far too long.

Still, most of these are good tales well told, with "The Gray Man," "City Of Death," and "House Of The Opening Door" being perhaps the highlights. Barbara Benjamin-Creel does a fine job bringing them to life (or afterlife as the case may be), giving each story and the characters within them their own voices.