Haunting in Old Tailem by Janice Tremayne

I received this book for free from NetGalley to facilitate my review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

An Australian ghost town. A resident demon and a local Shaman. A confrontation with evil awaits.
Clarisse realizes that running from evil is not a bad idea until she figures out you can't hide. When some ghosts get tired of hanging around, they latch onto you. At the centre of the war on evil is a historic Church that carries dark secrets within its walls. After she meets with the local Shaman, Clarisse discovers secrets with evil consequences by digging too deep into the town's past. When matters become complicated, she visits a circus of young performers on the outskirts of town triggering unexpected paranormal events and unleashing memories of a one-hundred-year curse. After being caught in the crossfire of a battle for evil supremacy, Clarisse confronts Little Charlie as he rallies the town's ghosts into an impeccable evil stronghold.
Can the local Shaman and townsfolk rally in her quest to defeat the evil incarnate or will the town succumb to Little Charlie and his evil crew?
Haunting in Old Tailem is the third book of the Haunting Clarisse Series. If you like spine-tingling, chilling, creepy and spooky supernatural thrillers, then you will love this story by 2020 USA Readers' Favorite International Book Awards Finalist in Supernatural Fiction, Janice Tremayne.
Pick up your copy today and follow Clarisse through her battles with evil!
★ This book can be read as a stand-alone

When I saw the cover and the fact that this book can actually be read as a standalone novel, I decided to take a chance on it. I am and am not glad I did. Let’s explore why.

The Characters

I actually enjoyed the characters in this book. Especially Shamy and Digger. They’re technically supporting characters for this particular installment in the series, but they’re fun and genuine, which I love about them.

Although it is stated this can be read as a standalone, I felt as though I should have read books one and two so I could fully understand Clarisse, Harry, and their relationship. I’m still unclear as to whether they are married or a live-in couple. Harry didn’t have too much time in the story, but what time he did have, he was used effectively to further the story along.

Although it felt as though Clarisse and Harry weren’t well thought out, it could simply be that I did start on the third book in the series.

The Storyline

The storyline was interesting enough. The town has a dark past and is basically the home of a demon and his crew of evil minions. Digger has had dealings with this evil crew before, as has Shamy.

The story itself took a while to unfold, and the ending felt a tad rushed, but it wasn’t something I could say was horrible or that was a deal breaker for the book. Between the characters and storyline, I’d read the book again.

The Writing

Now for the reason I gave this book two stars and why I wouldn’t read it again. Mind you, I was reading an eARC and I understand that they are uncorrected proofs, so some of the following could be due to that fact. So if the following were corrected in the released version of the book, I might actually give it another read.

The first thing that bothered me was the Australian lingo. I get it, the author is Australian, the book is set in Australia. However, for those of us who don’t live there or have friends who have lived there, the Australian lingo is a bit daunting. I knew a few of the phrases, but most of them I didn’t know. I also found it funny that Clarisse acted in some spots like she didn’t know what the lingo was either. A little glossary to define the Australian terms at the beginning or end of the book would have been nice.

This particular eARC, unlike many, was actually formatted to look like a normal book, with the exception of the missing cover. However, I did note that there were several places where sentences and even paragraphs were repeated. I’m not sure if that was a formatting error or if that was done on purpose and was supposed to convey the importance of those passages, but it bothered me a lot.

The other thing that bothered me a lot with this book was the constant finding words that shouldn’t have been there, words missing, and improper tenses or forms of words. Again, I know this was an uncorrected proof, but as a general rule, I don’t find this many mistakes in an eARC. I’m just saying.