The Haunted Homestead by EDEN (Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte) Southworth. Set in Virginia in an isolated location in the mountains, it begins in a very promising fashion. Southworth creates a very spooky atmosphere, one of the best I've read in a haunted house/ghost story in a very long time.

Few nineteenth-century American women novelists met with success equal to that

of Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth (E.D.E.N. Southworth). Harriet Beecher

Stowe, Susan Warner, Fanny Fern, and others certainly sold record numbers of

individual novels; however, E.D.E.N. Southworth's over 40 novels consistently

became best-sellers throughout a 44-year career, making her, over time, perhaps

the best-selling author, male or female, of her generation. Her stories entered

into the American consciousness--becoming popular plays, shaping fashion trends,

developing women's visions of themselves--as well as shaped the image of

"Americanness" in the minds of international readers around the globe. In

particular, Southworth's novels taught the world a vision of the American woman

that equaled in power and influence.