Milwaukee Ghosts (Schiffer Books)

From North Avenue to the South Side, from Shorewood to Brookfield , the Milwaukee area has ghostsor so says Sherry Strub in Milwaukee Ghosts. Strub takes the reader from place to placehomes, cemeteries, historic sites and even the hallowed Pfister Hotelin a trek around the area. The interviews and stories are interesting, but they lack a sense of authority and spookiness. Accounts of people saying, “I had this feeling something was in the room with me,” of which there are many, tease the reader but don’t really satisfy. The black-and-white images are, for the most part, grainy, dark and difficult to discern. To quote Dickens, I found this book to be “more gravy than grave.”