Ghost Key: Book 2 of the Hungry Ghosts

This tepid supernatural thriller continues where 2010’s Esperanza ended, detailing what is meant to be a grand struggle between a community of self-centered, abusive, destructive spirits and those who seek to limit their parasitic rampages. The hungry ghost Dominica, denied her old homeland, recapitulates the plot of many superior horror novels when she and her allies descend on the easily isolated community of Cedar Key, Fla., to take its hapless inhabitants as unwilling hosts. Opposing Dominica and her newly recruited legion of sex-obsessed shades is a diverse assortment of stock characters: plucky local single mom Kate Davis and her son, Rocky; government psychic Nick Sanchez; and Dominica’s longtime enemy, the were-dog Wayra. At no point does the story exhibit any glimmer of originality, and despite MacGregor’s attempts to conjure spooky atmosphere, it’s too cautious and banal to even be called horror. Agent: Al Zuckerman, Writers House. (Aug.)