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Ghostly Elements #1
A Ghost of Fire
Even ghosts need assistance. But what if the only guy who can help doesn't want to?
Steve wanted a job not a haunting.
But when he scores a position as a janitor at a respectable data processing company, eerie events arise around him.
There are the phantom smells of smoke wherever he goes and the echoes of childlike laughter in his apartment. But these inexplicable things are only the beginning of something much more menacing.
When Steve starts having terrifying nightmares and experiencing ghostly visitations when he’s awake, he finds himself caught between warring paranormal forces. As the mystery begins to unravel, Steve must decide which spirit he can trust or risk getting burned alive.
"A Ghost of Fire" is a chilling Ghost Suspense novel with a mystery twist.
Steve wanted a job not a haunting.
But when he scores a position as a janitor at a respectable data processing company, eerie events arise around him.
There are the phantom smells of smoke wherever he goes and the echoes of childlike laughter in his apartment. But these inexplicable things are only the beginning of something much more menacing.
When Steve starts having terrifying nightmares and experiencing ghostly visitations when he’s awake, he finds himself caught between warring paranormal forces. As the mystery begins to unravel, Steve must decide which spirit he can trust or risk getting burned alive.
"A Ghost of Fire" is a chilling Ghost Suspense novel with a mystery twist.
Kindle Edition
First published September 10, 2011
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149 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 25, 2025
Got this book for free, decided I liked the premise - helping ghosts get justice/closure? Sign me up! Always a fan of Ghost Whisperer style stuff...
However. Perhaps it is just me being unused or inexperienced with this kind of writing style but it used 1000 words when 50 or 100 would have sufficed. It felt unnecessarily padded with inconsequential details and flourishes that made the story twice as long. Internal monologues are fine, posing questions and theoreticals are good but when every chapter and every few pages is more then it becomes a bit contrived. The main character posed so many questions which were followed by some variation of "if only I'd known that the answer was going to be revealed very soon" like click bait in novel form. Also some interesting choices of inspiration.
DESPITE ALL THIS - despite the challenge I had keeping my focus and attention, I actually enjoyed the core story and was intrigued by the turn of events. The culmination framed as the start of the beginning was good. The supporting characters were reasonably good and could be developed really well together. I was less certain of the inclusion of psychic pieces but it serves as an overarching WHY and character trait so why not.
Definitely not the worst thing I've ever read but I doubt I'll be picking up any of the others in the series unless they're free. Sorry!
However. Perhaps it is just me being unused or inexperienced with this kind of writing style but it used 1000 words when 50 or 100 would have sufficed. It felt unnecessarily padded with inconsequential details and flourishes that made the story twice as long. Internal monologues are fine, posing questions and theoreticals are good but when every chapter and every few pages is more then it becomes a bit contrived. The main character posed so many questions which were followed by some variation of "if only I'd known that the answer was going to be revealed very soon" like click bait in novel form. Also some interesting choices of inspiration.
DESPITE ALL THIS - despite the challenge I had keeping my focus and attention, I actually enjoyed the core story and was intrigued by the turn of events. The culmination framed as the start of the beginning was good. The supporting characters were reasonably good and could be developed really well together. I was less certain of the inclusion of psychic pieces but it serves as an overarching WHY and character trait so why not.
Definitely not the worst thing I've ever read but I doubt I'll be picking up any of the others in the series unless they're free. Sorry!
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April 16, 2021I'm not rating this because it was a DNR but I'll explain why I couldn't finish it. I got halfway through because I decided to throw in the towel. I just didn’t care what happened to the characters and was bored.
There were several areas of the story that I had issues with and prevented me from enjoying the story. The writing was too amateurish for my liking. There was so much I would have suggested to help tighten up the writing, make it more direct, get rid of the inconsistencies and questionable areas had I edited this story. I just had a hard time, overall, because I was distracted with all the mistakes that the story itself was an afterthought.
The fact the reason Steve couldn’t be “all he could be” (ie get another teaching job) was because of the sexual accusations, yet the author never went into any detail regarding that area.
There were several times when the author glossed over events, like when Steve went to the hospital, then a week passed, and it was time to start his new job. But then turned around and talked about the hospital visits. That was just one example.
The other big picture issues I had are as follows:
1. Repetition. For example, “I went in and she followed closely BEHIND us. She took a seat BEHIND her neatly organized desk. She looked at me expectantly and then at the chair BEHIND me.”
Or “I’d completely forgotten my urgent plight to leave my apartment at this point and pushed the button to PLAY THE MESSAGE AGAIN (ie listen). I sat myself down (who else would have been sitting?) on the stool TO LISTEN TO THE MESSAGE AGAIN.”
Or there was something about how Steve was “TRYING to decipher what the boy was TRYING to say to the girl” on the answering machine.
Or “This time I really did fall OVER BACKWARDS as I tripped OVER my own two feet when I walked BACKWARDS too fast.”
Or “What if he hadn’t SEEN HER because he couldn’t SEE HER because I was the only one who could SEE HER?”
Or “I was sure she would seek INTEREST in at least one level of my INTEREST.”
2. Redundancy. This was written in the first-person point of view; therefore, the reader knows it was the protagonist who was telling the story. Simple. Yet, the author wrote it as though the reader didn’t/wouldn’t know this. For example, when Steve looked in the bathroom and it said something about how the shower’s shower curtain was either open or closed. My point here is that there was no reason to say the SHOWER’S shower curtain; obviously, the shower curtain was on the shower. Where else would the shower curtain go in a bathroom? Another example, “I thought it had to of happened for a reason.” Again, we know the protagonist was telling the story.
There were so many examples of repetition and redundancy throughout this story – it was crazy! How did no one notice these mistakes?
1. Tenses. From listening, I couldn’t tell if I just wasn’t picking up on something regarding the tenses, the back and forth between the present and past tense. At first, I thought maybe it was the character’s inner dialogue/thought, but after hearing “I thought” as well as “I think,” that was ruled out. So I don’t know what was going on there.
2. There was too much “telling” the reader as opposed to “showing” the reader with all the “I did this, I did that.” I, personally, think that made the story less interesting because it was hard to get into it; there was nothing for the reader, at least me, to imagine regarding what was going on with Steve and his surroundings because I was told what was happening as opposed to experiencing as though I were Steve. The world/scene building wasn’t the best either.
The narrator did an okay job. There was an instant where a line was repeated: “I try to stay calm but I was sick of defending myself against people.” Other times the narrator would stumble over words, and, to me, he read the majority of the dialogue so casually, no matter what was going on in the scene. I probably wouldn’t listen to him again.
Questions/Comments:
If Steve had a semi-good job prior to the sexual accusations, did he get rid of or sell all his furniture? I only ask because he uses a futon as a couch/bed, has a milk crate for a side table… It seemed like he had always been poor. I found it interesting that his parents were both millionaires though.
Picking up on that last sentence, how had his parents not been able to help with the accusations so he could have gotten another teaching job?
After entering the bookstore, Steve asked for help locating books on ghosts. So why was it when Katie came back she seemed surprised he was looking at books about ghosts?
I found the hospital scene hilarious in such a bad way. Obviously the author didn’t know how a hospital works and/or anyone else who read this story prior to publication.
1. If he was admitted while unconscious (and oftentimes when conscious as well), he would have been hooked up to an IV. The fact he didn’t even have on a heart monitor or anything was unbelievable. How else were the nurses supposed to monitor him without having to go to his room constantly, until he came to?
2. It seemed doubtful that the hospital staff would have put the drunk guy, who had injured and caused the death of someone, in the same room with one of the victims.
3. The best part of the scene was when the nurse told Steve all about the other victims and their injuries WHICH WOULD NOT HAPPEN! Period! That goes against patient-doctor/nurse/hospital confidentiality. This is all commonsense stuff though so it was surprising it wouldn’t have been caught before publication.
4. When the doctor came in, he told Steve that he’d been in an accident related to a high-speed chase. Huh? What was that about? No one was chasing anyone. The drunk guy was just speeding (maybe) and… drunk. Although I couldn’t help but wonder if Steve’s random swerving into different lanes because he didn’t know where the lane was while daydreaming might have added to the accident.
5. Steve hurt his right foot, so why when he brought up the whole driving a manual car did the doctor ask if he’d be able to drive using the clutch? The clutch is on the left side. Not to mention the fact the doctor told him to stay off the foot/leg, yet did a 180 and told him it was fine to drive using it. Make up your mind.
6. How had Steve been able to get in to see Katie? Was he family? Nope. So that wouldn’t have happened.
Why would Steve be doing research in a library and bookstore… when he has the internet?
Why would the boss of the company hire a custodian and not Derrick, who was the head custodian guy? That made no sense to me because it’s not like Jane had ever done the tasks any of the custodial workers who worked there would do.
The reader learned that Steve had been stuck in the elevator… for two hours… sleeping. Huh? When had he been sleeping? There’d been no mention of that and it seemed doubtful, even if he’d been tired, that he would have gone to sleep with the ghost activities going on around him. Not to mention the reader also learned that it had taken him thirty minutes to escape. Unless Steve had a watch, there would be no way of knowing the time difference between “sleeping” and escaping.
I received a free audiobook copy in exchange for an honest review.
There were several areas of the story that I had issues with and prevented me from enjoying the story. The writing was too amateurish for my liking. There was so much I would have suggested to help tighten up the writing, make it more direct, get rid of the inconsistencies and questionable areas had I edited this story. I just had a hard time, overall, because I was distracted with all the mistakes that the story itself was an afterthought.
The fact the reason Steve couldn’t be “all he could be” (ie get another teaching job) was because of the sexual accusations, yet the author never went into any detail regarding that area.
There were several times when the author glossed over events, like when Steve went to the hospital, then a week passed, and it was time to start his new job. But then turned around and talked about the hospital visits. That was just one example.
The other big picture issues I had are as follows:
1. Repetition. For example, “I went in and she followed closely BEHIND us. She took a seat BEHIND her neatly organized desk. She looked at me expectantly and then at the chair BEHIND me.”
Or “I’d completely forgotten my urgent plight to leave my apartment at this point and pushed the button to PLAY THE MESSAGE AGAIN (ie listen). I sat myself down (who else would have been sitting?) on the stool TO LISTEN TO THE MESSAGE AGAIN.”
Or there was something about how Steve was “TRYING to decipher what the boy was TRYING to say to the girl” on the answering machine.
Or “This time I really did fall OVER BACKWARDS as I tripped OVER my own two feet when I walked BACKWARDS too fast.”
Or “What if he hadn’t SEEN HER because he couldn’t SEE HER because I was the only one who could SEE HER?”
Or “I was sure she would seek INTEREST in at least one level of my INTEREST.”
2. Redundancy. This was written in the first-person point of view; therefore, the reader knows it was the protagonist who was telling the story. Simple. Yet, the author wrote it as though the reader didn’t/wouldn’t know this. For example, when Steve looked in the bathroom and it said something about how the shower’s shower curtain was either open or closed. My point here is that there was no reason to say the SHOWER’S shower curtain; obviously, the shower curtain was on the shower. Where else would the shower curtain go in a bathroom? Another example, “I thought it had to of happened for a reason.” Again, we know the protagonist was telling the story.
There were so many examples of repetition and redundancy throughout this story – it was crazy! How did no one notice these mistakes?
1. Tenses. From listening, I couldn’t tell if I just wasn’t picking up on something regarding the tenses, the back and forth between the present and past tense. At first, I thought maybe it was the character’s inner dialogue/thought, but after hearing “I thought” as well as “I think,” that was ruled out. So I don’t know what was going on there.
2. There was too much “telling” the reader as opposed to “showing” the reader with all the “I did this, I did that.” I, personally, think that made the story less interesting because it was hard to get into it; there was nothing for the reader, at least me, to imagine regarding what was going on with Steve and his surroundings because I was told what was happening as opposed to experiencing as though I were Steve. The world/scene building wasn’t the best either.
The narrator did an okay job. There was an instant where a line was repeated: “I try to stay calm but I was sick of defending myself against people.” Other times the narrator would stumble over words, and, to me, he read the majority of the dialogue so casually, no matter what was going on in the scene. I probably wouldn’t listen to him again.
Questions/Comments:
If Steve had a semi-good job prior to the sexual accusations, did he get rid of or sell all his furniture? I only ask because he uses a futon as a couch/bed, has a milk crate for a side table… It seemed like he had always been poor. I found it interesting that his parents were both millionaires though.
Picking up on that last sentence, how had his parents not been able to help with the accusations so he could have gotten another teaching job?
After entering the bookstore, Steve asked for help locating books on ghosts. So why was it when Katie came back she seemed surprised he was looking at books about ghosts?
I found the hospital scene hilarious in such a bad way. Obviously the author didn’t know how a hospital works and/or anyone else who read this story prior to publication.
1. If he was admitted while unconscious (and oftentimes when conscious as well), he would have been hooked up to an IV. The fact he didn’t even have on a heart monitor or anything was unbelievable. How else were the nurses supposed to monitor him without having to go to his room constantly, until he came to?
2. It seemed doubtful that the hospital staff would have put the drunk guy, who had injured and caused the death of someone, in the same room with one of the victims.
3. The best part of the scene was when the nurse told Steve all about the other victims and their injuries WHICH WOULD NOT HAPPEN! Period! That goes against patient-doctor/nurse/hospital confidentiality. This is all commonsense stuff though so it was surprising it wouldn’t have been caught before publication.
4. When the doctor came in, he told Steve that he’d been in an accident related to a high-speed chase. Huh? What was that about? No one was chasing anyone. The drunk guy was just speeding (maybe) and… drunk. Although I couldn’t help but wonder if Steve’s random swerving into different lanes because he didn’t know where the lane was while daydreaming might have added to the accident.
5. Steve hurt his right foot, so why when he brought up the whole driving a manual car did the doctor ask if he’d be able to drive using the clutch? The clutch is on the left side. Not to mention the fact the doctor told him to stay off the foot/leg, yet did a 180 and told him it was fine to drive using it. Make up your mind.
6. How had Steve been able to get in to see Katie? Was he family? Nope. So that wouldn’t have happened.
Why would Steve be doing research in a library and bookstore… when he has the internet?
Why would the boss of the company hire a custodian and not Derrick, who was the head custodian guy? That made no sense to me because it’s not like Jane had ever done the tasks any of the custodial workers who worked there would do.
The reader learned that Steve had been stuck in the elevator… for two hours… sleeping. Huh? When had he been sleeping? There’d been no mention of that and it seemed doubtful, even if he’d been tired, that he would have gone to sleep with the ghost activities going on around him. Not to mention the reader also learned that it had taken him thirty minutes to escape. Unless Steve had a watch, there would be no way of knowing the time difference between “sleeping” and escaping.
I received a free audiobook copy in exchange for an honest review.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 11, 2021
audible:This was a very good story.It was a bit long,but it was all explained well.Steve goes for a job interview and leaves with a ghost,or 3,a task and a legacy.Adam Knox was a fine narrator.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
January 19, 2024
Intriguing story
Love when a author adds a little bit of historical events intertwined with the ghost elements. Hope to see more of this character.
Love when a author adds a little bit of historical events intertwined with the ghost elements. Hope to see more of this character.
November 24, 2012
"A Ghost of Fire" tells the story of Steve Nicholas, a former high school teacher who loses his job and who must take a custodial position in order to make ends meet. As soon as he starts the new job, he begins to see and hear apparitions. Some beg him for his help, while others order him to stay away. Before long, however, Steve realizes that staying away simply isn't an option.
The book's greatest strength is the author's characterization of Steve. He is immediately established as a likable, sympathetic figure, one whom the reader roots for immediately. The author also does a good job in bringing his plot to its conclusion. In particular, what seems to be a bunch of random, uncollected pieces in the beginning are pulled together by the end and shown to be important to the "big picture."
My one complaint is that this book seemed to need more editing before publication. There are countless errors in comma usage (usually in the form of omitting commas where they should have been inserted), which becomes distracting at times, and the first-person narration seems as if it could have been streamlined in places. However, if you can treat these as minor issues, then "A Ghost of Fire" is a very enjoyable book.
The book's greatest strength is the author's characterization of Steve. He is immediately established as a likable, sympathetic figure, one whom the reader roots for immediately. The author also does a good job in bringing his plot to its conclusion. In particular, what seems to be a bunch of random, uncollected pieces in the beginning are pulled together by the end and shown to be important to the "big picture."
My one complaint is that this book seemed to need more editing before publication. There are countless errors in comma usage (usually in the form of omitting commas where they should have been inserted), which becomes distracting at times, and the first-person narration seems as if it could have been streamlined in places. However, if you can treat these as minor issues, then "A Ghost of Fire" is a very enjoyable book.
Read
January 10, 2012Great book. Sam did a great job with the main character, making him totally relatable especially in these tough economic times. You can listen to my interview with Sam Whittaker as we discuss A Ghost of Fire....I highly recommend it...www.authorchat.info
Lynda Brown
Lynda Brown
July 25, 2012
Really good book. Kept my wanting to read more and not put the book down. Can't wait for Ghost of Water to be released!
July 26, 2012
Okay, Okay, so I'm the author. You caught me. But I wouldn't have written it if I didn't like it :)
The Sequel, "A Ghost of Water," will be out Mid-August 2012 (SOON!)
The Sequel, "A Ghost of Water," will be out Mid-August 2012 (SOON!)
August 21, 2013
Took a while to start in on me, but when it did I couldn't put it down!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews