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Women in Black 100%

VERY STRONG ENDING All the mysteries are nicely resolved.  It's a good ghost story, too, but the revelation comes all in a piece and pretty much explains everything.  A village with a secret. Since it's a short book, maybe the strong ending saves the whole thing.  I'll have to think about that.

Spoilers:  The mother who was forced to give up her baby returns and lives near the child, as an aunt.  Child loves her; she loves child.  Boy goes out one day; mists come up; coach & child & nanny & driver all drown in marsh.

Mother--angry and bitter about being forced to give up the child--dies later of heart failure, but comes back to haunt the village.  Whenever she is seen, a child dies.

Our narrator learns that no child has died since his sighting . . . has the cycle ended?

NO! In a very nice twist, even though reader could see it coming, it is his own firstborn child who dies.  The child is in a coach in London.  The ghost steps out from under a tree, spooks the horse. Horse races off, crashing into tree, killing narrator's son and his wife. He watches helplessly.

Story is framed around his second family and his stepchildren, all of whom have been begging him to tell a ghost story for run.  Some fun.

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