Ghost Lake

Shockers Series

by John Peel

Things are bad enough when Brooke falls for her best friend Hayley's boyfriend, but then Hayley drowns in Half-Moon Lake, and her ghost comes after Brooke.

Genres: Horror

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

John Peel is the author of Doctor Who books and comic strips. Notably, he wrote the first original Doctor Who novel, Timewyrm: Genesys, to launch the Virgin New Adventures line. In the early 1990s he was commissioned by Target Books to write novelisations of several key Terry Nation Dalek stories of the 1960s after the rights were finally worked out. He later wrote several more original Daleks novels.

He has the distinction of being one of only three authors credited on a Target novelisation who had not either written a story for the TV series or been a part of the production team (the others were Nigel Robinson and Alison Bingeman).

Outside of Doctor Who, Peel has also written novels for the Star Trek franchise. Under the pseudonym "John Vincent", he wrote novelisations based upon episodes of the 1990s TV series James Bond Jr..

Reviews

[Autumn Ketchum · Rating 5 out of 5]

BRAVA!! I loved it. To preface, I am a sucker for aquatic horror and ghost stories. This had both of those and it was done really well. The ending really sealed the deal for me. This was my first Shockers book I’ve read, and it really impressed me!

[Evan Purcell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A girl is murdered in a lake and starts appearing as a dripping ghost to her best friend. Most of this story is a basic whodunit with four suspects and a few nice misdirects. The killer reveal is a bit predictable, but what happens after it is total gold. This is one of those good-not-great thrillers that gets completely elevated by its wild ending. John Peel cranks out another short, gnarly classic.

[BRANDON · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not going to lie, the twist ending was a humdinger, but it was kind of fun. I am a sucker for a traditional ghost story and Ghost Lake falls a little short of that, no spoilers, but that's okay. I touched on one of my favorite troupes in 90s YA horror, but I can elaborate because it would be a big spoiler. I'll eventually compile a list and write a big old essay.