Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

Heart-Shaped Box
by Joe Hill

Kinda like Ozzy Osbourne sans the side-effects, Judas "Jude" Coyne is an aging rocker with more past behind him than future ahead of him. But, his songs are still being played on the radio and he can still pull hot chicks. He also has a penchant for purchasing unusual items like a witches confession and a snuff film.
One day his buzzing assistant Danny tells Jude of a website that is auctioning off a ghost. After confirming the bid and allowing for delivery times, Jude receives his goods in a heart-shaped box. Inside is a suit; the ghost is attached to the suit.
Jude's current girlfriend Georgia (nicknamed after the state she came from) inspects the suit but pricks her thumb on a pin. A pin that isn't there...
At night, Jude is uneasy, he walks outside of his room and sees the ghost of the man wearing the suit in a chair.
He does some research and finds out that the ghost belongs to the step father of his last girlfriend Florida who committed suicide. The dead girl's sister sent it to Jude so she could get revenge for her death. She thinks Jude was responsible.
The ghost, Craddock McDermott, is very persuasive and frequently tries to make Jude kill himself and Georgia. As Georgia's pricked thumb gets festier and festier, they soon learn that they can't out run McDermott's ghost' he is always there, luring them both to the other side.
Before I tell you about how much I enjoyed this book I have to tell you about how much I love my Empire Magazine. I've been celebrating 'Empire Day' for over seven years now; every time it comes out I put aside what ever it is I'm reading and finish the mag cover to cover. With out fail. That is, until I started reading this book.
I could not touch my Empire mag until I'd finished it. It was that good.
Now, I don't read many ghost stories. I love my horror but there's just something about ghosts that really give me the heebie jeebies and dang does Joe Hill exploit that! I would get up countless times during the night to inspect the creaks and other strange noises that night produces that are so readily dismissed during the day. If I walked past an empty chair I would turn my gaze from it for fear that Craddock McDermott was sitting there in his funeral suit.
I frikken loved it. The term 'page-turner' can be aptly applied here.
Heart-Shaped Box is Joe Hill's first novel and with it (and his second novel Horns) he has become one of my favourite authors. I can't wait to read what he does next.