The House Where Evil Lurks: A Paranormal Investigator's Most Frightening Encounter

by Brandon Callahan

This is not a Hollywood tale, it is a true account of one of the most malevolent hauntings ever recorded. Join experienced paranormal investigator Brandon Callahan as one demon-infested property shocks his team with the intensity of its hostility, especially when the darkness bleeds into their everyday lives. When Brandon Callahan answers an innocent homeowner's plea for help, he has no idea he is about to become entangled with the most malicious supernatural force of his career. The House Where Evil Lurks chronicles a host of alarming disembodied shrieks and growls, threatening EVPs, violent confrontations, horrific nightmares, sightings of spirits and dark entities, and physical attacks that change the lives of these seasoned investigators forever.
"[A] stunning piece of paranormal writing."―Steven LaChance, author of The Uninvited

Genres: Paranormal, Nonfiction, Ghosts

264 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2014

Reviews

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read and as much as I wanted it to be scary it kind of fell short. I love to read about true paranormal books and with the cover along with the title make it seem the book would scare the pants off of you, but though there were a few parts that were creepy, I was never scared as I read it.

Paranormal Investigator Brandon Callahan along with his team of investigators help out a man and his family with a house that they reside in. The house has been invaded by a demonic entity which has taken up residence in the basement. The team of investigators set up all the normal equipment to capture the sounds and visuals of the activity in the house. Slamming doors, voices, footsteps, screams, growling, etc. are heard and felt by the investigators.

The story is fast paced, but it also deviates here and there throughout the story from the house to a couple of other cases that the investigators are working on. The book also takes awhile before you actually get into the story as the beginning of the book is all about the author himself of how he became a paranormal investigator.

The creepiest part of the book is when the demon attached itself to the author, Brandon Callahan after he was finished with the case at the house and what he had to endure with activity in his own home. Giving this book three stars.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Being a fan of all things paranormal, I jumped at the opportunity to review, "The House Where Evil Lurks" from author and paranormal investigator Brandon Callahan. I enjoyed the story as a whole, but as a reviewer, am obliged to provide not only praise but suggestions for improvement.

First and foremost, this work would benefit from a good "scrubbing." By this I mean not just a gentle edit or proofread, but a thorough edit. The sentence structure and punctuation errors were distracting to the point where a reader would need to skim a confusing sentence or paragraph so that the highlights would jump out and the errors remain largely in the background. It's similar to the optical illusion where the text reads, "A bird in the the bush," but the reader would swear it read, "A bird in the bush." That's precisely what I experienced with this book.

Secondly, I felt the work was rather repetitive. The author need not explain a scene or decision more than once, lest he run the risk of insulting or alienating his captive audience. When an author states more than once why he or she took a particular stance or made a certain decision, it feels as if the author is attempting to justify rather than explain. The audience doesn't need convincing, and writing in this manner makes it seem to the reader as if the author in fact does. If the author isn't confident, the reader won't be, either.

Finally, continuity was an issue for me. The story regarding Haun's Mill felt out of place and detracted from the original story line, which according to the title, is the haunting at Shane's. Though I fully grasp the importance of this part of the author's journey, I cannot help but suggest that it may be more apt to include this segue either at the beginning or end of the book. A bit tighter relationship between Haun's Mill and either the haunting at Shane's or the author's journey would also be helpful. I understand the author's attempt at explaining cause and effect in regards to his beliefs and decisions made during the investigation at Shane's and his journey as a whole, but with the title being, "The House Where Evil Lurks," it is confusing and distracting to place narrative regarding Haun's Mill in the middle of the story regarding Shane's house without firm correlation. Should there be a later publication in anthology format, ie., "True Tales of Paranormal Investigation" or, "The House Where Evil Lurks and Other Stories," then a clear separation between stories would still be required, though it would not feel out of place to have more than one story included in the volume.

As stated in the opening paragraph of this review, I did enjoy the story, overall. My attention was held from beginning to end, and I've no doubt that I would be able to award a five star review to this work once the aforementioned suggestions were addressed. For now, I award a three star review and look for more from this author.

[Emily Kestrel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love paranormal investigation stories, and this one was sufficiently creepy and entertaining to hold my interest. I wasn't sure what to make of the author, though. If we take the book at face value (with non-fiction paranormal accounts, I always take everything with a grain of salt, although ultimately I don't try to decide if I believe the author or not, as long as it's a good read), the author made some seriously stupid decisions during the course of this investigation. He deliberately provokes a demonic entity and leaves himself wide open to its influence several times during the course of this investigation! And then he complains that the clergy members he talked to who told him to leave this stuff alone were arrogant, and states that many other paranormal investigators are irresponsible thrill-seekers. I'm not sure what alarmed me more, the descriptions of the creepy entity or the author's behavior.

Either way, it was an interesting book, and I would have rated it higher if it hadn't been for how poorly edited this thing is. I don't mean a typo here and there--I mean serious problems with sentence structure, verb tense, repetition and continuity. If I hadn't been so interested in what happened, I probably would have dnf'ed for the verb tense problems alone.

[A Reader's Heaven · Rating 3 out of 5]

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

When paranormal investigator Brandon Callahan and his team answered a homeowner’s plea for help, he had no idea what he was getting himself into. Everything from inhuman laughter and screaming, disturbing nightmares, bleed-throughs and escalating threats make this one of the most terrifying hauntings ever encountered.

The story of this haunting is actually very interesting and quite compelling. The details are amazing as is the authors attempts at cleansing the house.

The problems I had weren't with the story - they were with the writing. The biggest problem I had was the editing. Far too many times I had to stop and re-read a sentence or two to make sense of what was being said. I have seen other reviewers say they had to skip parts because it was too confusing. That is a shame - because with some decent editing, this book would have been much better.

The other main issue was repetition. It felt like every time Brandon made a decision about a course of action, he had to explain it to the reader, somehow trying to justify the reasons behind it. After half a dozen times of reading the same reasonings, it became frustrating. Something an editor should have picked up.

Apart from the writing issues, the tale itself is really interesting and should you pick it up, persevere with it - the story is fantastic.


Paul
ARH

[Ramona Wetzel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible Arrogance

This book is well-written. No typographical errors. Steadily paced with many frightening situations recounted by the author. I believe this "factual" account ought to be required reading for non-religious ghost busters who bravely (foolishly) run to fires without benefit of means to extinguish the threat. I do not doubt the "good intentions" of this author. After all, isn't the road to Hell paved by such? Act in haste, repent at leisure and all that.
The Author doesn't comprehend why the priests of the Catholic Church don't run out the doors to find people in need of house blessings, sacraments, salvation from hoardes of unclean spirits. He doesn't understand why the priests he spoke with wish him to have a faith in God as solid as tempered steel. The reasons are simple.
Truth be told, one cannot have one foot in New Age and the other in the Catholic faith/belief system. We Catholics do not require EVP sessions, infrared cameras, Ghost Boxes, crystals for protection, white sage sticks (with or without the requisite Eagle feather and abalone shell) or any gizmo that science has created to validate and understand that demons are real.
Those of us who live in friendship with God and practice our catechism every day already know what to do about demons. We do not treat them as a fetal pig ready for dissection. We do not engage in any type of conversation/communication with these unclean spirits. Not even the Archangel St. Michael spoke directly to the unclean. He is credited in Holy Scripture as stating to it "The Lord rebuke you"!
That said, I must pose this question to this esteemed author:
By whose authority are you under during your forays into the preturnatural? Why didn't the burning of sage and your "stones" you carry for protection protect you? By what knowledge have you pronounced Shanes home forevermore the abode of the demonic?
I sincerely hope any individual who attempts to interact with any unseen entity doesn't call on rank amateurs but goes directly to their Minister, Priest, Rabbi, Iman. There are reasons the presence of the unclean spirits are to be dealt with by religious. Even then, bodily harm can still occur to them. A priest was terribly raped and required hospitalization during an exorcism. The offending demon committed the assault. This is one of five case histories recounted by Malichi Martin in his book, "Hostage to the Devil". It is available on Kindle. Another absolutely wonderful group of books by Father Gabriel Amorth can also be found on Kindle as well.
It saddens me the author had to suffer the physical trauma he did. The nightmares trouble me greatly because it is indicative of demonic oppression. Next stage is obsession which, if left unchecked, leads to possession. If the offending spirits are permitted by God to do so. These spirits have been in existence before the creation of man. They are ancient, smarter, stronger than all of humanity combined. No human compels them to do anything. They only act on the wee bit of chain that is permitted to them by God Almighty. And only God Almighty can rid the person, place or thing of them. The key is aligning ones will with the will of their God, renouncing sin, living a life as holy as one can and (in the case of this Catholic) availing oneself of whatever sacraments their Church, Temple, Shrine or Mosque offers. I wish you health and happiness, Brandon. I sincerely hope you are well.

[Majanka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book Review originally published here: http://www.iheartreading.net/reviews/...

I wasn’t sure what to expect from The House Where Evil Lurks. The description seemed a little over the top, but I’m a huge fan of true haunting books, so I gave it a shot anyway. This is supposedly the author’s most terrifying case to date. It failed to scare me, though.

Let’s start with the book’s first major flaw – it focuses too much on the author, instead of on the house and on what’s happening. Instead of focusing on this one investigation, we get more info about the author’s journey, how he became a paranormal investigator, and so on. By the time we get to the actual meat of the story, any potential fear is gone.

The writing is dry, dull, repetitive, and could use another thorough edit. Now, this is an ARC, so a lot of errors can still get fixed by the time the book is released, but for now, the writing is distraction. I kept having to reread sentences. The story lacked continuity as well – sometimes it jumped from one chapter to the other, without making much sense, or without the two chapters or hauntings connecting in any way.

Overall, I wasn’t scared. I was, in fact, bored. We find out next to nothing about the history of the house, the investigators believe every answer they get through EVP (although the general consensus on EVP is that it can’t always be trusted as a resource), the house doesn’t seem all that scary, and there’s no solution at the end. Now, this is real life, so I understand some things can’t be solved. But they don’t even try. In the end, they decide to leave the case open, just because.

To say I’m dissapointed in this book would be an understatement. With a title like that, I expected a lot more.

[Sylvia Shults · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was ... an interesting read. I read a lot of paranormal nonfiction. I'm an author in that field myself, and a paranormal investigator, so it's always a treat for me to see what other folks are up to. I thought this was an interesting case, but I feel the investigators could have handled it better (more research on the history of the property, less provoking of the entity). And the writing DEFINITELY could have used the hand of an editor. Tense inconsistensies out the wazooty. Please, please learn how to write properly before you attempt an entire book! That being said, I appreciated the look inside an ongoing investigation. I was particularly intrigued by Callahan's description of being on the inside of a Ganzfeld experiment (even though he told us he wasn't going to describe how to set it up, then did just that a few chapters later). I've done this experiment in a public setting, just playing around with it. I was interested to see how it came off in an investigation setting.

[Avis Gill · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book that was interesting, scary and somewhat controversial.
While the author states he wants to help people that have strange happenings
in their homes and give them peace, I think he could have done somewhat better.
Rather then discount the church stance on paranormal occupancies, I think he
could have asked for an exorcism and been a part of it. That way he would have experienced
what kind of evil was involved, before taking matters in his own hand.
By learning more with each case he and his team will learn what to do and what not to
do with various entities.

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story itself is a decent tale, but I have to give one star to books that have obvious spelling and grammar mistakes. This one, unfortunately, read like a cop told a ghost story to a transcriptionist for whom English was not their first language. Stilted and awkward and unclear phrasing. I think the author really wanted to make a documentary but couldn't get the money for that.

[Mark Puckering · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave up halfway through the book. Poorly written, little discernible editing or proof-reading, rather like one of those awful American "supernatural" investigations on cable TV; the ones where they constantly call each other "dude" and scream as soon as they hear something go bump.

[Jennifer (BTH Reviews) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review Courtesy of: Books That Hook

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.


The House Where Evil Lurks details Brandon Callahan’s horrible experiences as a paranormal investigator and his determination to persist despite the negative effect it has had on his life.

Much of the book is about one particular house. However, the title is a little misleading because there is a lot more to the book that has nothing to do with the house.

I feel that the book should have been streamlined. I got the impression that this author has a tendency to go off on tangents. Some of the information included in the book seemed irrelevant to the case he was trying to focus on. I thought several times, why is he telling me this? Some of the book felt like filler rather than anything the reader needs to know in order to understand his experiences with Shane’s house.

The author is also repetitive. I noted several instances in which he told the reader something he had already said earlier.

At the beginning of the book, he tells the reader about things that seem unnecessary for the reader to know. Much later, he comes back to these things. I think it would have been better to wait to introduce them, since they weren’t a big part of the story. For example, his nightmares don’t have a lot to do with the case. I never understood why the reader needed to know about the Nemesis. This could have been mentioned briefly, but it didn’t have to be in the introduction and brought up repeatedly, since it had no bearing on the case.

Callahan does a good job of conveying his emotions at the time of his experiences. The reader can really relate to him. Unfortunately, the validity of his story got blown up toward the end of the book. When he is talking to Jason about the house and what to do about it, Jason says he doesn’t know what the thing in the house is. A few sentences later, he proclaims it is a demon. Which is it? Jason doesn’t know or Jason knows? Or, Jason never said that and the whole thing is bogus?

Up until that point, I felt sorry for Brandon, his friends, and his clients. After he makes conflicting reports of what Jason said, I didn’t care anymore. If your story isn’t consistent, it’s probably made up.

The story has a conversational tone, and there are a lot of unnecessary explanations and anecdotes. While this was entertaining at times, it was also annoying at times.

[MeriBeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Note: Book received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The House Where Evil Lurks by Brandon Callahan is marketed as the story of the most intense and disturbing ghost investigation ever done by its author. However, the book is more a biography of the investigator framed by the investigation of the house. Little is told about the house, I get the impression that after he discovered the first proofs that an EVP from the house fit into its history he didn't look any further into its history or anything else that might have happened on the land where it was built. He just assumed he found the answers to the haunting and went on trying to confront and expel whatever it was until finally he, on the advice of his investigative team's medium, decided to leave it as open. A helpful decision considering that the family which owned the house decided to sell it in order to get away from the haunting permanently. The book includes descriptions of many events in the apparently haunted former funeral home from EVPs to attacks to floating lights to video of an apparent massive "demon" or "entity" sulking about in a hooded cloak. For those who are triggered by such things, the next to the last chapter includes the author's rather graphic description of him being beaten and raped by this entity as a way of keeping him from the home in question though there were no physical marks or damage to him to be found in the light of day.

In the end, I do not know what to make of this book. It has a light, breezy, slightly irreverent tone to it which thus ruins any "terror" or "horror" felt by the story being told. After all, it's hard to be focused on the fear-factor of the haunting when Mr. Callahan spends three pages discussing how one of his fellow investigators needs to desperately use the bathroom but insists on having company to go to the bathroom as he was afraid of being alone. I expected a book detailing an investigation, the history of the house in question, and the results of the investigation. What I got was a first person semi-biographical, almost juvenile in tone book which left me with more questions regarding the house investigated then chills.

Crossposted to my book blog here.

[Morgan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had a difficult time rating this, between 'did not like it' and 'it was okay'. The actual haunting case was very intriguing and I would have loved to have learned more about it, but....that's where my interest ends.

The book was very poorly edited. Lots of tense changes and facts/sentences were repeated multiple times in various chapters.

I am not a paranormal investigator, a parapsychologist, a demonologist etc., but in my personal opinion, I do not feel like this paranormal team handled this investigation professionally at all for various reasons.

[Leeann Sheriff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good true story of events that had occurred in trying to isolate and remove evil from a house where a hearing impaired man had lived. Thought that it would not bother him as much due to his disability. After being physically attacked and going no where with the investigation, the owner moved and sold the long time family home. I like the story but I also see where there were things that they missed which could have removed the negative energy from following the investigators home. Quick read.

[Julie Pfleuger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honest view of investigating

I have read many, many books about the paranormal field. This book and this author Mr. Brandon Callahan is no joke, if you are looking for a book that is filled with thrills from beginning to end, this is not for you. But if your looking for a real story that doesn't sugarcoat and gives you the struggle of an investigating team and the family they intend to help, this is for you. The evil they come up against is enough to make you keep the lights on and question the shadows.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

The House Where Evil Lurks was a pretty frightening read! The best parts are when the author and his paranormal team are investigating a particular home in Missouri which they soon discover has a demonic entity residing within in it! The demon begins to prey on the author outside of the haunted home, as well as some of his paranormal investigators. The book is a bit slow when the author discusses other investigations, but on their investigations into the demon infested house, I was riveted!

[Kay Kidwiler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much better then I thought

When I got about a third into this book I kind of got bored with the talk about his personal goals. Then he goes back to the story. I got interested again. There's a place where he is talking about a normal body function that he could use better words for but this isn't my book. Just an opinion. Other wise I did enjoy this book.

[Garryvivianne · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like spooky stories, so this caught my eye. A paranormal group investigate a house with a rather ominous guest or a houseful of specters. Kept reading, all the while thinking this is probably nothing, anybody can write this. Never really got into it, never really believed it. But read to find out the outcome. Was a disappointment.

[Alicia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm working on this now and I'm having an issue with the amount of "psychic" involved. I want to believe but you gotta come at this girl with nothing but science and observation. I don't give a shit if you "feel" something.

[JoJo Kirkman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stupid, stupid man is all I can say. All he did was provoke the demon, didn't try and communicate effectively at all. He never even tried to solve anything! And then he's surprised that he's assaulted by the demon?!!? Did not like this book at all!

[Liisaan · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book sounded interesting enough, but it is so poorly written I couldn't get past the first chapter.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting account. Not sure what I think about the writer and his motives..... but I was fascinated by the various experiences.

[Janice Felgueira · Rating 2 out of 5]

The haunting in this story was very interesting, but the writing was not that great. At certain points the writing made the story not believable.