Haunted Damariscotta: Ghosts of the Twin Villages and Beyond

by Greg Latimer

Whispers and shadows from the past linger in and around Damariscotta. Mary Howe might have been buried alive in a mystic trance in the late 1800s. Displeased with such a claustrophobic and premature end, her spirit is said to haunt the cemetery to this day. Did the ghost of pirate Johnny Orr reveal a fortune in gold? Does the Lady of Ladd's Hill move objects and bump around in the night? When things go missing in Sheepscot Village, there may be a little ghost named Abernathy to blame. Spectral apparitions also abide in nearby Newcastle, and the towns of Lincoln County have an abundance of supernatural occurrences. Investigative reporter Greg Latimer uncovers the history behind these seemingly unexplainable stories.

160 pages, Paperback

First published May 27, 2014

Reviews

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grew up on ghost stories. The towns of Maine are full of them. The centuries old houses, the raging sea, the land that seems older than time itself all lend themselves readily to the mysterious and the spooky. While I've never been into horror or gore, I do still love a good ghost story. Haunted Damariscotta is a collection of local ghost stories set in and around the Damariscotta area. Some of them I'd heard before, and others were new to me. But it was a lovely collection.

The only real critique I have about this book sometimes it was too serious about trying to prove the stories rather than just tell them. While I did love the accurate historical backgrounds, I didn't pick up this book for definitive proof of the existence of the supernatural. I wanted to read the "On dark and stormy nights..." kind of stories. So I enjoyed the sections that simply recounted the tails rather than those that sought to convince the doubters. Still, this was a fun little collection of local lore, and I enjoyed it.


This review fulfills the "Book that Takes Place in Your Hometown" category of the Popsugar reading challenge. http://www.popsugar.com/love/Reading-...

[Lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Think ghost stories are fiction? Perhaps not, in Greg Latimer's telling of legends and ghosts of Damariscotta and Newcastle (and a few Wiscasset) ghosts. A ghost-hunter himself, Latimer is careful to separate evidence from legends from history. Whether you believe or not ... Haunted Damariscotta is an entertaining read, especially if you know the area.