Keeping in my reading "theme" of ghost stories for the month of October, this book has ghost dogs, not ghost people, but ... a great read, nonetheless!
Spirit Holden and her father survive on the Outer Banks by telling people's futures after touching their keys. Or rather, her father does. She's 12 and still waiting for her "gift" to show itself.
Until she touches the dog tag of her deceased dog, Sky. Sky wasn't just any dog. He started off feral, a member of a pack of "baldies" reviled by islanders for being "devils." Every time Spirit touches the tag, Sky comes to her.
She discovers that she can bridge the spirit world by placing objects at his burial site, on dunes at the beach. And he never "just" appears -- he's always begging her with his eyes to follow him.
Then her father gets sick, and a woman gets sick, and the local doctor takes them away for quarantine, saying it was their contact with the "baldies" that caused their illness.
More dogs are found dead, and it's up to Spirit to follow the growing pack of spirit dogs to the source of their deaths.
A super-sad read, not a scary ghost story at all.
