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AMATEUR SLEUTH/COZY/ CHICK LIT/CRIME/HUMOR/
PARANORMAL/SUSPENSE/ SOFT-BOILED/THRILLER/ WHODUNIT MYSTERY
THE HOUSE ON BENEFIT STREET
After her husband dies, Angie Russo makes an unexpected move: to an old house on historic Benefit Street in Providence, Rhode Island. Angie's house is haunted...but by whom? The spirit of a little boy lost? Or the ghosts of Angie's past? As Angie tries to move on her with life, things keep going bump in the night. She hears voices. She sees her dead husband at the bedroom door. Stairs creak; windows rattle in the still of the night. The house on Benefit Street is filled with secrets from attic to cellar. Angie wants to stay and build a new life, but the house on Benefit Street has other ideas...
Read A Review:

I zipped through "The House on Benefit Street!" Your writing is wonderful...I have faces for all the characters...even little Eban! I simply love falling into a book like that. You are a wonderful story teller. I look forward to more.

Eileen, Rhode Island



...god almighty you had me up to 2 a.m....I tried to sleep before the end of the book. Turned out my light at midnight. Lay there for an hour, HEARING THINGS! and at 1:00 I turned the light back on and finished off the book. After which I had to sleep with the light on. Such wonderful details of dress and food...the lesbian gourmets versus the Lean Cuisine, the chit chat at the office, the solitary routine of women in their 50's...it seems to gather up around the idea of fears we don't need to have...nicely done...

Zane Kotker, author of Try to Remember


Anyone who has spent time in Providence will get a kick out of reading "The House on Benefit Street" with its frequent references to popular Rhode Island spots and events, such as Waterfire, Gallery Night, the Cheesecake Factory at Providence Place Mall, RISD and, of course, Thayer Street. 

But it's more than a travelogue--this is a supernatural thriller, with a most unusual and amazing heroine. With the author's extraordinary talent for character development, the reader is drawn into the life of Angie Russo, experiencing overwhelming grief at the loss of her husband. Forced to deal with life-altering decisions, Angie finds her way and finds herself, without being melodramatic.

Along the way, she finds her new home, a rambling old house on Providence's historic Benefit Street, is filled with ghosts. Ghosts from her past? Or someone else's?

By Claudia Jenney Simpson
Gazette Lifestyles Editor


PROVIDENCE: At times, every house can feel haunted. Things go bump in the night (like the mortgage payment.) Shadows lurk in the corners (things left unsaid, undone, unresolved.) Something that wasn't there before appears out of nowhere (you never expect those bumps in the road.) And you ask yourself, do I live in
this house, or does this house live in me? In The House on Benefit Street, an old Providence townhouse takes on a life of its own as its protagonist struggles to do the same, in a fluid, read-it-in-one-sitting horror novel that grapples with both internal and external ghosts. (The House on Benefit Street...has) ...a
certain sinister element reminiscent of Hitchcock's Rebecca, in that the house becomes a looming main character. ...Following Angie as she discovers Waterfire, dines at the Cheese Cake Factory, strolls down Thayer Street and catches a movie at the Cable Car is just fun--we Rhode Islanders love to have our local flavor recognized.

Jessica Hearst , Southern Rhode Island Newspapers