Through ten haunting stories, Skeleton Keys examines the true firsthand accounts of individuals facing the paranormal where they work. Read about happenings in a brewery where witnesses experience shattering glasses, a Lady in White, and ghostly singing. Learn about Realtors® dealing with stigmatized houses abandoned by their owners, unusual experiences of security personnel alone in darkened buildings all night, and more. Historic locations, old houses, and places to eat, drink, or rent a room are all examples of potentially active workplaces. Working anywhere can open doors to new experiences, but be warned, sometimes when opportunity knocks, it’s not alone!
Paranormal Book Reviews – Skeleton Keys: Workplace Hauntings
It’s not often that I get to have a conversation with a colleague about a workplace haunting, let alone find anyone these days who believes in ghosts! I get it; it’s hard to believe in something you don’t get to see as the mere notion of a ghost and a haunting can be deemed far-fetched to consider as fact. I believed in ghosts, once upon a time, before reason and logic took hold. But, still, there is a corner of my brain (the dark one) that hinges on wanting to believe, and it is always open to the possibility. I was, after all, part of a video production crew that followed paranormal investigators as they roamed purported haunted locations in search of that elusive evidence that would finally put the question of the existence of ghosts to rest. They never did. Sure, some interesting things happened which could be categorized as creepy, unexplainable, or just coincidental but never enough to sway me into believing. There was this one time when my wife and I saw… something, but I will divulge that at a different time.
Author John Klann interviews various individuals from different walks of life for the sole purpose of putting together ghost stories associated with their places of business such as real estate agents, security guards, stage actors, and even the author’s own experiences in one of the alleged haunted locations featured in Skelton Keys. From uninhabited homes, hotels, offices, bars, and schools, Klann gives us a look behind the curtain at these locations that, although familiar with such places, are shown in a different light and also reveal that not all scary things happen in the dark.
Right off the bat, I knew that I was going to get from this book because of the candor Klann portrays in his preface and introduction. It is the notion that the stories would be portrayed as genuine as recounted by the purveyor of each story, whether I chose to believe it or not. Yes, every storyteller sets out to convey a tale as truth as they see fit, but there was a sense when reading Skeleton Keys that there was no embellishment whatsoever. Could the happenings have been misconstrued or misinterpreted? It is without question that our minds tend to fill in the gaps for unexplained phenomena so it is likely that these paranormal witnesses could have misconceived a ghostly phenomenon with something else. But, who am I to say? I will not, however, call anyone a liar. The stories featured in the book are mostly unexplained instances that, by the deduction of the storytellers, point towards a ghost or ghosts. This last statement in and of itself can be interpreted as a stretch.
Still, many of the tales, in my opinion, were authentic because of their simplicity. The lack of outlandish hyperbole to try and sell the story to the reader was a welcomed departure from what I am used to reading in many of the non-fiction paranormal books that I’ve read. On rare occasions, I find a gem such as this book. Skeleton Keys: Workplace Hauntings is an interesting read, however, it did lack, for the most part, in the scare department with a few exceptions, in particular, “Intruder,” which definitely sent chills down my spine. The other stories were more eerie than scary and, yes, there is a difference. With that in mind, I enjoyed reading this book and was a fan of Klann’s writing, which kept me committed and yearning to read the next tale and what it had in store.