The Lost Boys of Barlowe Theater by Jaime Jo Wright ~ Review

It promises beauty but steals life instead. Will the ghosts of Barlowe Theater entomb them all?

Barlowe Theater stole the life of Greta Mercy’s eldest brother during its construction. Now in 1915, the completed theater appears every bit as deadly. When Greta’s younger brother goes missing after breaking into the building, Greta engages the assistance of a local police officer to help her unveil the already ghostly secrets of the theater. But when help comes from an unlikely source, Greta decides that to save her family she must uncover the evil that haunts the theater and put its threat to rest.

Decades later, Kit Boyd’s best friend vanishes during a ghost walk at the Barlowe Theater, and old stories of mysterious disappearances and ghoulish happenings are revived. Then television ghost-hunting host and skeptic Evan Fisher joins Kit in the quest to identify the truth behind the theater’s history. Kit reluctantly agrees to work with him in hopes of finding her missing friend. As the theater’s curse unravels Kit’s life, she is determined to put an end to the evil that has marked the theater and their hometown for the last century.

Genre: Romantic Suspense, Christian, Historical
Published by: Bethany House Publishers
Publication Date: October 2023
Number of Pages: 384

Ohhhhhh the secrets!!!!!! This story grips you right from the start with parallel plots from different timelines, a death that only one person saw with absolutely no evidence of, two instances of people gone missing, a history of questionable and tragic deaths, and all of it happening in the same Barlowe Theater.

The characters bring us a delightful combination of skeptics, ghost hunters, mediums, and realists, not to mention victims, missing persons, and… spirits?
Two Christian skeptics vs. Ghosts and the people who have seen them. I actually didn’t realize that this was a Christian fiction book until I was a few chapters in. What an interesting perspective to read a Christian fiction book about ghosts and hauntings!

I absolutely loved Greta, her storyline from 1915, and all the characters involved! Kit’s modern day story and surrounding characters were just okay for me and her plot felt a bit lacking on its own, but it did add depth to have two similar haunting stories happening over 100 years apart with intertwining pieces. There were several moments that had me gasping right out loud and plenty of shocking revelations that you won’t see coming!

All in all, I highly recommend it!!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Thank you, Partners In Crime Tours

Jaime Jo Wright is the author of nine novels, including Christy Award and Daphne du Maurier Award winner The House on Foster Hill and Carol Award winner The Reckoning at Gossamer Pond. She’s also the Publishers Weekly and ECPA bestselling author of two novellas. Jaime lives in Wisconsin with her cat named Foo; her husband, Cap’n Hook; and their two mini-adults, Peter Pan and CoCo.