Lost Souls of Caligo Falls by Tom Hoffman is the fifth book in The Ghost Ring paranormal series. Simon and Clara are excited to be home in Caligo Falls for the summer and look forward to solving more cold cases for the police department. With the help of the Ghost Ring, Simon can see and communicate with ghosts to help them cross over. Marion Jaggers approaches the two young people with an offer; she has to sell a vacant hotel in Manhattan. Unfortunately, there seem to be some ghostly occupants that need evicting. She offers a lucrative incentive, and Simon and Clara set off to Manhattan. There they encounter two specific ghosts through whose eyes they relive an exciting time in history, solving the case and sending the ghosts on their merry way. Little did they know that the information they found in the prestigious hotel would also help them solve a cold case in Caligo Falls.

Tom Hoffman writes engaging and entertaining young adult fiction. The Ghost Ring series has become a favorite of mine as the stories are intriguing and uplifting. There is no bad language or intimate scenes, which have become embedded in so many young adult series. The author addresses many themes in his books, and Lost Souls of Caligo Falls does not disappoint. He takes a look at the human longing to elude death and live forever, without regard for the consequences. He meticulously describes what motivated the hotel owner to go to the lengths he did for his health, as well as the consequences of his decisions. Simon and Clara take away a valuable lesson to add to those learned in the previous books, having shown growth since the first novel, while holding on to humility and respect for the task that Simon took on when he accepted the Ghost Ring.

The Ghost Ring: Lost Souls of Caligo Falls by Tom Hoffman is an intriguing story, containing numerous twists that will make readers question their own reality. When Simon and Clara, two best friends and partners, decide to become paranormal investigators to help the deceased move on safely to another realm, the small town of Caligo Falls and most of Manhattan start to turn upside down. Barley & Moody Paranormal Investigations, run by Simon and Clara, is on the front lines solving the unresolved and the unknown mysteries that this realm holds. Their mutual friend and acquaintance, an eccentric lawyer, Marion Jaggers, contacts them with a job proposal to investigate and clear the hundred-year-old Blackwell Royal Crown Hotel in Manhattan, which has spectral entities plaguing its halls. It is an offer that the young investigators simply can't refuse.

Tom Hoffman’s playful and often investigative writing style and comprehensive descriptions of the characters, the otherworldly creatures, and exciting situations in The Ghost Ring are a thing of beauty when it comes to writing. Whimsical, fun, approachable, and easy to understand, this story might just become a first choice among readers of young adult fiction and beyond. The hotel, the travels to faraway lands, and the place where Simon and Clara live are vividly described with such care that readers immediately become an essential part of the history and the dynamic narrative. A truly wonderful story, with immersive historical details and a lighthearted tone, makes The Ghost Ring: Lost Souls of Caligo Falls a fan favorite.

Tom Hoffman’s The Ghost Ring: Lost Souls of Caligo Falls follows Simon Moody, a physics student who inherited an ancient ring that lets him see and speak with ghosts, and Clara Barley, his girlfriend and paranormal partner. Their first paying case comes from eccentric attorney Marion Jaggers, who sends them to Manhattan’s abandoned Blackwell Royal Crown Hotel. The building has been closed since owner Henry Allistair Blackwell vanished in 1927, but a salvage crew refuses to return after seeing something inside. Marion also gives Simon a brass key marked 714, even though the hotel has no Room 714. Back in Caligo Falls, Simon and Clara choose a century-old murder case involving architect Edwin Morland, only to discover his death may be connected to Blackwell’s hotel. Soon, two ghost mysteries are leading toward the same secret.

Tom Hoffman’s The Ghost Ring: Lost Souls of Caligo Falls is a brilliant paranormal mystery in which the setting gives the story power. Hoffman places readers inside the Blackwell Royal Crown Hotel, where an elevator arrives carrying a bloodied ghost as untouched rooms wait behind brass doors. The best part comes whenever Simon shares the scene with Clara. Hoffman makes them funny while the mystery keeps its spell. Simon can be startled by a ghost one moment, then moved when he recognizes the person in the apparition, which gives his character humanity. My favorite part is Henry Blackwell’s 1899 journey into the Congo Basin, because the author turns a hotel clue into a historical adventure. That is a satisfying way to let history widen the mystery while keeping the characters close. Readers who enjoy ghost stories touched by history, this one is for you.

Lost Souls of Caligo Falls is the fifth book in Tom Hoffman’s The Ghost Ring series, a paranormal horror story with exceptionally crafted characters. Clara Barley and Simon Moody are teenage investigators, excited to have their first case when the mysterious attorney Marion Jaggers hires them to cleanse the Blackwell Royal Crown Hotel in Manhattan before its demolition. They possess the Sacred Shadow Ring of Persephone, which gives them the power to see ghosts and relive their memories. The duo discovers a secret eighth floor packed with African artifacts collected by Henry Blackwell during a trip to the Congo Basin in 1899. But what’s most disturbing is Room 714, hidden since 1902. It reveals that Henry Allistair Blackwell, thought to be dead since 1927, drank from the Ziwa Uzima, the pond of life, which granted him immortality and drove him to commit murder and cause another death. They have to free these souls and solve the Briar Hill Road case before returning to school.

Tom Hoffman’s novel skillfully melds supernatural horror with exceptional character work. Clara and Simon are a compelling pair and complement each other in surprising ways; she is the insightful one, and he is the scientific skeptic. Apart from the young investigators, I enjoyed Marion, and her gruff, cookie-munching quirkiness illuminates the humor in this story. Her habit of eating a cookie slowly creates suspense as the two investigators wait for answers or for what she may say next. The prose is clean, and the author quickens the pace with smooth temporal transitions, reliving memories associated with the decaying hotel. Lost Souls of Caligo Falls features snappy dialogue, and the drama builds with Simon’s vampire jokes and Clara’s unexpected retorts. This is an engaging paranormal novel with plenty of adventure.