High Spirits

Charmed #39

by Scott Ciencin, Constance M. Burge, Troy Denning

She sang her telegram to a Hollywood star; now he entertains from afar.
Foe to friend, help in our quest to rid this mansion of an unwanted guest.

The Charmed Ones travel to Hollywood to attend a big bash hosted by Kevin Peterson, Paige's old flame. Kevin is holding the party at his recently purchased mansion, which he was able to afford because of rumors that it's haunted! Sure enough, ghostly goings-on begin almost immediately, but everyone believes that Kevin is the one behind the "haunting." He confides in Paige that he is not.

The ghost reveals himself to be Robert Maxwell, a star of stage and screen who vanished under mysterious circumstances in 1926 right after receiving a singing telegram. A friendly ghost, Maxwell just likes having an audience. But when people start to disappear and the house seals shut, the Charmed Ones realize something evil must also be lurking. It is only with the able assistance of their ghostly ally that they and the rest of the partygoers stand a chance.

Genres: Fantasy, Witches, Tv, Paranormal, Fiction, Supernatural, Mystery

240 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Scott Ciencin was a New York Times best-selling novelist of 90+ books. He wrote adult and children's fiction and worked in a variety of mediums including comic books. He created programs for Scholastic Books, designed trading cards, consulted on video games, directed and produced audio programs & TV commercials, and wrote in the medical field about neurosurgery and neurology. He first worked in TV production as a writer, producer and director. He lived in Sarasota, Florida with his wife (and sometimes co-author) Denise.

(Also wrote under the pseudonyms Nick Baron and L.J. Oliver)

Reviews

[Bobby Underwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Well, no cats, at least,” Paige muttered. “Can’t explain why, but if there were cats, too, I’d find this downright creepy. Hundred-year-old witch sitting us down with pie and a story. Add in some cats? I’d be out of here. It’d just be too much.”


When I read a Charmed entry, it’s usually to relax between more substantial reads, and/or I’m working on something of my own which drains me. These books associated with the show are meant as pure escapism, so I rate them on how well they fare as light and enjoyable entertainment for fans, and how well it recreates the feel of the show. The previous entry I read was one of the most enjoyable yet, and this one isn’t that far behind it. In fact, I might have enjoyed it even more than Hurricane Hex. There’s a lighter spirit — no pun intended — in High Spirits than in some entries to the series. While we get some danger, and a rather nasty demon or two get vanquished, this is mostly about an old Hollywood mansion haunted by a ghost who is quite the ham, and has a sense of humor.

The prolog is set in 1926, giving us background and context that the sisters don’t initially have. It’s nicely done, setting the tone for the story. Cut to the three sisters at the Moon Festival in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Phoebe is enthusiastic about the festival but is quickly reminded by Piper that they’re there to battle the Demon of Illusions. There is a rooftop battle the sisters win, of course, but Phoebe finds the demon’s nearly unworried promise that he’ll be avenged, a tad more disturbing than Piper and Paige, who shrug it off as typical of those being vanquished.

Paige’s very good writer/director friend — for a moment she thinks he’s going to propose to her — has just bought silent film star Robert Maxwell’s old mansion, and he is throwing a party. Kevin needs Paige’s help at the party because he actually loves Cassie — ouch! — but Cassie doesn’t know how he feels. When the sisters all attend the party, Cassie’s heartbreaking news that she’s going to marry Ryan is the least of their problems. A rather mischievous ghost is putting on some spectacular shows for his new audience. No one has really gotten hurt, and everyone thinks some new film magic is being used and premiered at the party. But then Piper is chased by a very large and menacing cat, and Phoebe begins getting impressions from the mansion itself. A diary written by someone in the prolog clues the Charmed Ones in on the fact that Maxwell isn’t a ghost at all. A sweet but klutzy witch named Emily may have been responsible for what’s happened.

An enchanted mansion, a rather sweet romance, some nefarious goings on which are non-magic related, and an engaging reason for what’s happening in the present make this very enjoyable. And don’t forget about that promise the illusion demon made. This would have made a wonderful episode, even though we had no Cole or Darryl, and really only an off-stage Leo. I loved the easy flowing narrative, and the breeziness to it. It has only one minor continuity issue regarding some early dialog, where Paige wants to address someone’s mention of hearing things; in fact that person had not said anything of the kind. Edited out, perhaps?

For fans of the show, this is a breezy and fun entry with a very nice ending. Highly recommended.

[carly simone · Rating 1 out of 5]

dnf with ~50pgs to go. usually really enjoy the charmed books but this one was just terrible.

[Leanne Graham · Rating 1 out of 5]

Definitely my least favourite story in the whole series, I found it genuinely difficult to keep reading this one because it just didn’t grab me at all. I found parts really corny, especially when it came to demon fighting. I love some trash talk as much as the next person but this was just too much, there was more (bad) sarcasm and sass than action. A lot of over explaining aswell which is a pet peeve of mine. Very disappointed!

[Courtney Gruenholz · Rating 3 out of 5]

As of right now, this is the last Charmed tie-in novel I could find for a decent price.

There are two more books after this and one before High Spirits that I hope to find out in the wild because prices are insane for even a used copy online!

I'm still going to say this is season six because there is mention of Wyatt and Phoebe temporarily losing her empath powers. Yet it has Paige's hair color as auburn so late season five or early season six.

Paige is center stage on this one but gets her sisters involved in an aspect of her personal love life.

A prologue tells us about actor Robert Maxwell in 1926. Soon after receiving a singing telegram from a young woman, he mysteriously disappears, and his Hollywood mansion is said to be haunted for years to come.

Paige has a friend/old flame named Kevin Peterson who has just purchased the mansion for cheap since it is haunted but he doesn't really believe in ghosts. He wants to throw a party for all his friends but in particular to catch the eye of a girl named Cassie. Paige is a little bummed that Kevin didn't want to rekindle their romance but knows Kevin always had a crush on Cassie but was too shy to get the words out.

Now a screenwriter, Kevin also wants some investors to help him get into directing another screenplay he wrote. Being such a nice guy, Paige is ready to help be a matchmaker. Piper and Phoebe rib Paige about her relationships and bet Paige won't be able to go all weekend without hitting on one of Kevin's friends.

Kevin's friend in charge of the kitchen, Craig, seems to catch Paige's eye and vice versa. Karl is a graphic designer, and his attitude is caustic and bored. The only other man there is a well-known, multi-millionaire bad boy named Ryan Tobias, and he is Cassie's current boyfriend. A businesswoman named Tamara and a health concsious girl named Jessica are Kevin's other guests.

Robert Maxwell decides to crash the party just then in character of his last movie role, The Pirate King. Crazy shenanigans happen and it is quite a show that everyone believes Kevin staged and hired people behind the scenes to accomplish. Paige gets up close and personal with the ghost and trying to use her orbing powers doesn't out her or her sisters as witches...everyone assumes it is movie magic.

Kevin arranges a ghost hunt, and everyone splits up into teams. Paige is with Kevin, Tamara and Craig while Piper is with Karl and Ryan leaving Phoebe with Cassie and Jessica. Paige and Craig hide at a warning from Robert Maxwell's ghostly signal to the witch and they find that Karl and Ryan are up to no good. Piper, on her own, gets attacked by a giant jungle cat while Phoebe discovers that there is another presence in the house that isn't Robert Maxwell.

A dark one that could be a demon in disguise amongst the guests at Kevin's party. The Charmed Ones come across a hidden diary and believe that might be able to find a way to free Maxwell's spirit from the house after all these years. Being a friendly ghost, they may just even need his help to protect a handful of innocents.

High Spirits has a sad undertone to the tale despite all of the laughs and horrors that get thrown our way. Parts of the story seem to drag on but, in the end, everything works out. The Charmed Ones are all in rare snarky form, Piper even more so, and all of the other characters except for Karl and Ryan are very likeable.

A Haunted Hollywood mystery this would have been an excellent episode of Charmed proper, but I can see where it may have been out of budget. Heck it would have made a good Charmed television movie, but I guess that's showbiz, baby.

[Brittany · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is definitely one of the worse Charmed novels. Would it have killed the guy to watch like half an episode to stay least know how the powers worked? Or like… spoke to a woman for the mirror scene or anything? Having checked the other books he wrote for the series I think this was probably made up of the throw away ideas from his old Hollywood and lighthouse ghost possessing books from the series. Just aggravating.

[Jay Wong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting to say the least. There is scare, and action. However, it was questionable with some things. Piper never mentioned her Children, so it was hard to know whether she already had Chris or not. Leo played only a minor character in this book. Overall, however, the story was fine.

[Alyce Caswell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Utterly ridiculous and definitely not a good book... but I had a lot of fun reading it, strangely enough.

[Denise · Rating 1 out of 5]

n this 2007 book based on the TV series "Charmed," Piper and Phoebe Halliwell, with their half-sister, Paige Matthews, are three incredibly powerful witches who live together in the family house in San Francisco. Piper is married to Leo, a Whitelighter (a guardian angel for witches and other upstanding folk). She runs a nightclub called P3. They have a son, Wyatt, who is a babe in arms. Phoebe is divorced from Cole, a half human/half demon. Paige has given up her job as a social worker as South Bay Social Services to bone up on witching full time. Seems to me she lately had a string of temp jobs, but none of those come in to play in this book.

With few exceptions, I've been thoroughly disappointed with the “Charmed” books I've read, but when I scanned the prologue of this book in the library, it seemed like I'd finally hit pay dirt. It opened in Hollywood, in 1926, telling the tale of the unlikely demise (?) of one Robert Maxwell, star of stage and screen. Maxwell seems to be a cross between Rudolph Valentino (who died in 1926) and Errol Flynn. Something wasn't right. He's been turning down parts for things like the sequel to The Thief of Baghdad and The Jazz Singer. The press wants to know the truth about a rumor that he's got a spiritual retreat to Tibet planned. He brushes it off with a joke and hints about womanizing.

Once he's alone in his mansion, he receives a singing telegram, a new fad. The woman—a witch--is cute, but she can't exactly sing and she's a klutz. The next thing Robert Maxwell knows, he's become absorbed into the house. He's not quite a ghost, but he can haunt. He can't leave the grounds. He doesn't notice the single tear the witch sheds. He's happy.

It struck me as having a lot of potential, hearkening back to the silent-film era of Hollywood, with a sadness in the characters and the unexplained act of making a ghost out a man as an act of love. So much for the first 19 pages of the book.

The readers first meet the sisters fighting a demon of illusions during the moon festival in present day Chinatown in San Francisco. The flashing lights are taken by the crowds to be really neat fireworks. Just as the demon, one M'Gohrathot of the Clan Eesleviathan goes on to his reward, he vows vengeance on the sisters. Paige has to hurry away to a dinner date with an old flame, Kevin, who recently made it big with a screenplay in Hollywood. He invites Paige and her sisters down to his mansion in L.A.(which he got really cheap because it's haunted) for a weekend house party.

Of course it's Robert Maxwell's old digs.

Kevin is suave and sophisticated, knowing just the right thing to say to each person, except where Cassie is concerned. They've known each other for a while, but he's decided he loves her and has suddenly become tongue-tied. To make matters worse, she arrives at the house party with Ryan on her arm, who is, therefore, immediately a bad guy.

And that's where all the potential of a nice, romantic ghost story, evocative of the silent film era, just goes to hell. The characters are cartoons, the dialogue a collection of catchphrases: “Wait for it,” “Don't go there,” “Hate to say I told you so, but I told you so.” The actions of the ghost are outrageous and on par with Saturday morning cartoons. In one illusion, he arrives in a pirate ship in the swimming pool, almost more Captain Jack Sparrow than Captain Jack Sparrow. The house guests don't see a ghost, but figure that Kevin has got some incredible special effect gadgets in the house. They want a piece of that action! In another illusion, the ghost surfs while 60's surf music echoes throughout the house. Where did a guy who left this world before TV or commercial radio get hip to the whole 60's surfing music thing?

There seems to an evil presence creeping into this house full of sawdust-for-brains humans. The ghost, who is tied to the house and fiercely protective of it, just seems confused by the fellow otherworldly house guest. When that presence begins creating illusions, Phoebe cries out, “This is all hokey B-movie stuff!”

Yep.

At one point, the demon makes a staircase smooth, turning it into a slide, just like so many Saturday morning cartoons. While there is a lot going on, particularly toward the end of the book, it's all smoke and mirrors. The characters are mere plot devices--two-dimensional and shallow. None are believable, including those of the sisters'. After Maxwell's ghost makes a heroic entrance, he proclaims: "There really is no difference between playing a hero and being one. You simply have to believe in the role!" (p. 194)

Oh, gag me with an "After School Special."

Whether or not the author had the movie in mind, I couldn't help but be reminded of the old flick The Spirit is Willing when reading this, as well as some of the old Topper movies. It also screamed of Pirates of the Caribbean, of course.

That's a pity, because this book could have been a whole lot more.

[Melissa T · Rating 2 out of 5]

Usually I love Charmed novels because they're just like episodes. While I enjoyed the story itself, the corny puns and spelling errors were just too much for me to give this more than two stars. Call me a stickler but poor word choice really does detract from the story. I found three spelling errors within ten pages of each other and that's just the ones that stuck out, there may have been more.

[RumBelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a good story, but not one of the best of the Charmed books. It centered around a haunted house in Hollywood that the sisters spent a weekend at. One of Phoebe's friends was living in the house, and so their was a personal element. In addition, the house was haunted by more then one entity, which made the book exciting, but many of the other plot elements were hokey.

[[ eff. i have no clue! ^o^ ] · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was the first charmed book i owned i thought it was hilarious when piper said " sucking face with a ghost, considering who im married to, i do that constantly." charmed is my passion. imma little too obsessed but who cares. charmed is worth every ounce

[Joanne F · Rating 4 out of 5]

some of it was a bit weird where maxwell ends up being the demon`s brother

[Gwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like all the other Charmed novels, a great book, and just as good as the actual show.

[The Third Place A Teen Library]

F CHA
Fantasy

[Gabriel Mero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not my favorite in the series, but still a good book.

[Carmen Drake · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolutely terrible. I love Charmed and I love the book series but this one was so badly written, I really struggled to finish it.

[♡ Jeri's Book Attic ♡ Jeri the Romance Bibiliophile ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]