The House in Harrison
By Michael Andrew Marsden

REVIEW BY JUDY O’NEILL
Media Weavers 2004



In The House in Harrison we meet the ghost of Jolie who has waited long years to exact her revenge.
It’s 1967.  The beautiful mansion on the edge of the town hasn’t had a living occupant since 1917.  Carol Potter is getting old and decides to spend her declining years in the lovely old house.  She convinces the owner, Father David, to sell it to her.  The Father lived there as a young man, but isn’t saying much about what happened there back then.
Carol’s grandson, Frank, is waiting to hear if he will get a deferment from the draft to go to graduate school. If his deferment is denied, he goes to Vietnam.  His grandmother convinces him to fix up the mansion during the summer while he waits to learn his fate.  While ordering lunch in Harrison’s only café, he notices lovely Anna, who is waiting tables.  And Anna notices him.
The house in Harrison will change the course of their lives.
Early in the 20th century, lumber and ore was shipped down the Coeur d’Alene river to the lake of the same name making Harrison, Idaho the “Queen City on the Lake.”  In 1917, a fire stared and burned most of the city down.  He residents rebuilt only part of it, reducing the once bustling hub of Idaho industry to a small town.  That conflagration, however, did not threaten the house where Jolie waits.
Set in beautiful area of northwest, this novel carries the reader back in time, first to the years of the war in Vietnam and then to dramatic events before the fire.
When he created Jolie, Michael Marsden didn’t follow the old “haunting” conventions, but as a lover of ghost stories I enjoyed the novel anyway.  I myself holding my breath more than once and was satisfied at the end when old mysteries were revealed.
The House in Harrison has certainly placed Northern Idaho on my map of places I’d like to visit.
Michael Marsden moved to northern Idaho in 1963.  He retired from the Forest Service in 1993 to write mysteries set in the northwest.

Judy O’Neill lives and writes in Hillsboro, Ore., where she is marking a novel, one of a series in progress.


Praise for Michael's Novels...

The Man in the Closet
By Michael Andrew Marsden
Reviewed by D. Andrew McChesney




When Kyle Carraher’s family moves from Washington, D. C. to Wallace, Idaho, his fear of large rodents gnawing through the wall is replaced by dread of the man in the closet.  Over the subsequent years, the supposed presence in the upper floor storage room exerts unusual influences over members of his extended family.  Eighteen years later Kyle returns to the house to determine if there really is a man in the closet.
As it begins, this book reads like one intended for a younger reader.  The straight forward writing clearly depicts extraordinary events in what were quite ordinary lives.  As the story progresses, darker, more sinister, more adult themes are introduced, taking the tale to a level meant for a more mature audience.  When one reaches the final page, murder, arson, sex for sale, sex as a means of coercion, and criminal insanity have all made their presence known.  Each chapter takes the reader to greater heights of suspense and increases the “can’t put it down” factor.
The Man in the Closet is the author’s second ghost story set in north Idaho, and is pleasantly devoid of many of the faults associated with self-published work.  In all aspects it is a well-written, well-edited, and professionally produced book.
The Man in the Closet, from Marsden Publishing, ISBN 1-59975-485-1, is priced at $16.00 and is available at local Spokane, and Coeur d’Alene book stores and at www.amazon.com   Check out the author’s web-site at: www.michaelmarsden.com




"Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader, not the fact that it’s raining, but the feeling of being rained upon..."  - E.L. Doctorow



BOOK REVIEWS >> THE SCENE  
By Holly Chase Williams
Spokane Coeur d’Alene Living Magazine, July/August Issue 2008

A Walk in the Rain
By Michael Andrew Marsden



You will feel the warm rain in this gentle romance, which focuses on health club owner Susan Anthony, a widow, and engineer Andy Davis, a wooden bridge enthusiast who is still smarting from a recent divorce.
When Susan discovers that her regiment of working out, involvement in the health club, and over-attentiveness to her looks are actually her dead husband Ken’s dreams and desires rather than her own, she must find a new direction for her life. Andy’s challenges include a potential hostile takeover of Crawford Construction by his estranged ex-wife and a diagnosis of Ménière’s Disease, and inner ear disorder which causes jumping eyes, severe vertigo and nausea during attacks.
When Susan’s elderly, wealthy father, who is going blind from diabetes complications, decided to erect a monument to his late wife that includes a wooden bridge over the Snake River, Susan and Andy are thrown together in a race against the clock.
Readers will revel in the relationships in this well-plotted story, especially the interaction between Susan’s daughter Kathy and her grandfather Walt, and between Andy and his faithful dog, Rex, who “thinks he’s the supervisor’ on all construction projects.
Early in the book, while Susan is attending a friends wedding away from home, she calls Kathy and asks her to watch her grandpa.
‘I know, Mom,’ Kathy says. ‘I found a neat way to get him to check his blood-sugar level.’
‘What’s that?’
‘I tell him I don’t feel right but I hate that terrible meter. Of course he gives me a short lecture on diabetes and checks his own level to show me it’s not big thing.’
‘Don’t overplay it, Grandpa is pretty smart.’
Readers of a certain age will especially enjoy this contemporary love story with its older protagonists – real people who have loved, and lost, but must face their fears and their pasts in order for their lives to change.
the North Idaho Ghost Writer.
Michael Marsden
Sam d’Bear, a big Newfoundland dog comes into David Montgomery’s life by accident and makes a home for himself.  Sam seems to know when someone needs a friend and his arrival creates both opportunities and problems for David.  As their story unfolds, they are confronted by fire, snowstorms and even a mountain lion. David is a local businessman and photographer who finds himself drawing the attention of two very different but extremely attractive women. Sharp Bateman, a lonely boy with a troubled past, becomes involved with two rebellious teenage girls who are setting fires around town. When David’s house is set on fire Sharp’s only friend is David, who does not believe what everyone else assumes.
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