Magnetic Mansion: Return to Eden
Forrest Haskell
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“Magnetic Mansion: Return to Eden”, Part 1 brings the reader into the action: Honey, wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a nice little cottage at a lake?

The speaker, Zachary Heikel, mid 30’s, married to his high school sweetheart, stay at home mom, Peggy Sue, goes on to relate that that simple, sincere statement while it didn’t sound like the beginning of an eight year journey into bizarre and haunting experiences that would envelop himself, his wife and his four children, did just that.

The narrative opens in 1971 with a circle drawn around an ad in the Ann Arbor newspaper. The ad was “Cottage for Sale”.

Living in the small Southern Michigan village, Dexter, the speaker and his family lived in a house out in flat open range land. Setting out in the morning the speaker and his wife set out to locate the cottage and think about a purchase. To their surprise the asking for the so called cottage is $125,000. The Heikels are quick to make the purchase.

From that beginning the reader is carried along on the strange whirl, based on true experiences of Writer Haskell.

Part I finds Zack, Peggy Sue, and their kids buying the –cottage-, actually it is quite a manor, before long the second home becomes their permanent residence. Each room of the house and its décor is described fully. Part one ends with a contractor set to begin renovations to the house.

Part II opens a few days after the renovator pockets his check and drives away. Zack and his family trek to the cottage to spend a little time there during a school holiday.

From this point the tale really begins to heat up, anticipation, weird and wonderful events and the historical record of the house itself lead the reader deeper into the intrigue. The Heikel family begin to divide their time between the two residences. Almost from the outset they notice out of the ordinary things taking place in the mansion. With concealed passages, sounds from the fireplace, diverse escape means scattered all over the house, and finding doors on the basement floor to seeing unknown faces in the mirror, finding a secreted elevator and locating hidden rooms and a dungeon; this is not your average lake cottage. The mystery surrounding the house takes the reader to criminal factions, a group known as The Purple Gang, and the Knights of Zion.

The family sells their home in Ann Arbor house and moves into the mansion where they find money hidden in a secret safe in a hidden room, Zack is startled to see a face, not his own looking back at him from a mirror, tableware begins to float in the air, green fog bothers the family pets, Zack notices a dog that the rest of the family cannot see.

From the opening pages set in 1971 through an eight year period ending early in 1979 Writer Haskell presents a fast paced work filled with other worldly phenomena, excitement, characters who are believable and interesting in a setting sure to excite the senses and retain reader interest.

The snows finally came in fury, and one dark evening after a family dinner in town, Zack and Peggy Sue travel toward home when they see a deep red glow on the horizon. Their worst fears are realized as they turn onto the street leading to their –cottage-. The residence was fully engulfed in flames. As the family watched the fiery inferno that was their home Peggy Sue was the first to notice the flames had become a deep purple, and an immense shaft of spiraling white smoke and steam was rising from the center of the house.

Not the typical haunted house tale, “Magnetic Mansion: Return to Eden” is a spell binding recounting of the experiences dynamic storyteller Haskell presents in dynamic prose. Characters are well developed, settings a meant to draw the reader into them, dialog is believable and compelling. Writer Haskell has set down a well planned and executed tale. “Magnetic Mansion” is a quick read for those who enjoy a good mystery and like a little paranormal along with the mystery. “The Knighthood of Zion” and “Mankind's Second Genesis” complete the series. I hope the author or publicist send them soon, I would like to continue reading this author to the end of the story. Happy to recommend.