Jackie’s Ghost

by Norman Keane

Jackie Price is a little girl with a problem: there's a horrible ghost living in her cellar. It makes bad things happen.

You might think it's Jackie doing all the bad things, but it's not: it's her ghost. With her mummy gone and her older brother, Steve, busy with his very naughty mates, Jackie keeps getting into trouble. And the ghost keeps upping the stakes so that eventually she has to sort it out once and for all.

Except what if the ghost isn't what she thought it was? What if it's something much worse? Then what?

The Eden Book Society was a publishing house that produced horror novelettes for a private list of subscribers. It was established in 1919 by the Eden family, handed down through the generations issuing short horror novels to a confidential list of subscribers. Eden books were always written under pseudonyms and were rumoured to have been written by some of the greatest horror authors of their day, many of whom had strong ties to the mysterious Eden family. Dead Ink is reissuing eight novels from Eden's 1993 archive encompassing psychological torments, vampiric intrigue, visitors from beyond the grave and much more.

Are you brave enough to join the Eden Book Society?

Genres: Horror, Historical

106 pages, Paperback

First published July 2, 2026

Reviews

[Blair]

Nine-year-old Jackie is one of a group of kids getting by alone after their mum disappears (assumed to have run off with a boyfriend). She believes there’s a ghost living in the cellar, and to this ghost she attributes all sorts of bad behaviour by all sorts of people, including herself. Although written in third person, the narrative emulates Jackie’s naive inner voice and thought processes; it’s a child’s register although much of what Jackie sees and hears is not child-friendly: The axe was only a small one not like in a fairy tale or in a horror film but Steve hit him really hard. Eventually Jackie’s story takes her away from the house where ‘her ghost’ lurks, but of course she’s drawn back, and makes a gruesome discovery about the real source of the haunting. Bleak, brutal and sad.

(Part of the Eden Book Society 1993 collection)

[Olivia Wolfenden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not entirely certain you can class this as horror. Weird modern fiction maybe. Anyway, it’s great.

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very kindly gifted this book by a member of the Banquet Records team; it was inssaaaaneeeeee. I’m not the biggest horror girl but the last ten pages had me in a hold

[Millie]

was a really good allegory and then got kinda naff