Linda Palmer

Strange and Stranger Linda Palmer

While overseeing renovations on Harvey House, the family inn, Maddie realizes she can see dead people--specifically her grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents, and great-great-great-grandparents. While it's kind of cool to meet her ghostly ancestors, it worrisome that they're still hanging around the place. Maddie makes it her mission to convince them to move on, a goal complicated when her vacationing parents invite the ghost hunting stars of Strange and Stranger television show to come and investigate Harvey House for anything paranormal. The Harveys have high hopes that the inn will be declared "haunted" and become the getaway of choice for curious lodgers. Horrified, Maddie hopes the opposite, which is why she begs all her dead kin to hang out in the off-limits basement until the ghost hunters leave, a total of three nights' hiding. If they are detected, Harvey House will never be the same. Everyone promises to cooperate. Maddie's first surprise is the arrival of five men instead of the four she expected. The Strange brothers, hosts of the series, have brought along a tech man and two videographers instead of one. Ben, they tell her, is a temporary hire and so new that they keep forgetting his last name. Her second surprise is the obvious differences between Ben and the rest of the crew. The Stranges have dealt with so many spirits they've forgotten that each lived a life and may now be missed by those left behind. Ben, on the other hand, is chagrined and apologizes to Maddie more than once for what he considers the disrespect of his bosses. Clearly, he is way too sensitive for this job, which makes his being there a mystery as intriguing to her as the mystery of the haunted inn is to the ghost hunters.