A Ship Possessed

A Ship Possessed

Posted On: February 16, 2010
Posted In: Alton Gansky, Chiller, Mystery, Symon, War
Comments: 4 Responses

Reviewed by Symon: 8 out of 10.

A Ship Possessed is Book 1 in the  J. D. Stanton Mystery series (trilogy) – A series in which a retired navy captain/historian (Stanton) is called upon to investigate paranormal occurrences relating to the armed forces.

Military + Paranormal + Christian worldview = Definitely my kind of series.

The Back Cover blurb from A Ship Possessed follows.

The USS Triggerfish–an American World War II submarine–has come home over fifty years after she was presumed lost in the Atlantic. Now her dark gray hulk lies embedded in the sand of a San Diego beach, her conning tower barely above the breaking surf. The submarine is in the wrong ocean, her crew is missing . . . And her half-century absence is a mystery that’s about to deepen. For the Triggerfish has returned, but she has not returned alone. Something is inside her — something unexpected and terrible. To J. D. Stanton, retired Navy captain and historian, falls the task of solving the mystery surrounding a ship possessed. What he is about to encounter will challenge his training, his wits, and his faith. Complicating his mission is a ruthless madman bent on obtaining a secret artifact stolen from the highest levels of the Nazi regime. And poised in the middle is a young woman, a lieutenant who must contend with invisible forces she never knew existed. A Ship Possessed is a story of faith, courage, and determination in the face of unexpected and unknown evil.

This book is a cleverly crafted mystery, alternating between 2 stories separated by 5 decades:  The happenings on a submarine during world war 2, and the happenings when the same sub suddenly appears 50+ years later.  The two stories eventually intersect, and all is revealed (as would be expected in a mystery novel), in the final chapters.

I cannot say much more than what’s on the back cover without spoiling the story, but suffice to say – this is a genuine ghost story, not the disappointing rational-explanation-man-in-ghost-costume-scooby-doo plot.

Gansky has an amazing knack for developing characters and atmosphere which are totally believable.  Some books, inbetween sittings, stay with you (in your mind) – and this story was definitely one of those.  It also single-handedly rekindled my childhood interest in submarines, resulting in another viewing of the classic Das Boot ;-) ).

A Ship Possessed is an intense read and has some genuinely unsettling/scary moments (depending on the readers’ imagination), and Gansky’s take on ghosts and other paranormal entities is thought-provoking to say the least.

Not an epic, nor classic, but a very enjoyable/engaging read nevertheless – and I’m looking forward to reading the other 2 books in the series (which are currently sitting snug on my bookshelf).

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