Jessica Bannister

When Jessica gets a job writing for the London City Observer, she expects a demanding editor to be the biggest threat to her career. Instead, she finds herself caught up with ghosts, curses, and premonitions lurking behind every corner. Can Jessica, along with her trusty cameraman Jim, find the truth behind the story - and do it before her deadline?

Jessica Bannister isn't cut out for life in the slow lane. She's not the kind of journalist who is satisfied with writing about heatwaves or interviewing vocabulary-limited sports stars. No! She wants to be out there, travelling the length and breadth of the British Isles and beyond, bumping elbows with actors, nobility and... pirates?! Trouble always seems to have a way of finding the supernaturally-gifted investigative reporter. Even when she takes a relaxing cruise to wind down, on the hunt for nothing but a little holiday romance, long-dead spectres have other ideas. But despite the spine-chilling situations the young newshound inevitably ends up in, she's determined to solve the mysteries of the past and lay to rest the souls of the restless dead who have haunted the waves for decades, even centuries. All secrets will be thrust into the light under her inquisitive eye, and though fear may grip her and horrors may lurk around every corner, she'll stop at nothing to get her story.

Despite a number of brushes with the supernatural in her first six months on the job as a journalist for the capital city's favourite tabloid, the London City Observer, Jessica Bannister remains naturally suspicious whenever anyone claims that ghosts and ghouls are responsible for the mysterious goings-on in any given place – and with so many bad actors around, seemingly intent on preying on the superstitions of the locals for their own ends, who can blame her? But when the spectres of the past rear their ugly heads and she discovers there may be more to her dreams and premonitions than she first thought, she's forced to re-evaluate her scepticism and revisit painful memories from her own life as well as having visions of tragedies that happened centuries ago. Yet, in spite of the danger and heartache awaiting her, and even though she often finds herself in isolated locations, cut off from civilisation, she's determined to get to the truth – and write it all down for her readers.

There aren't many things more important to Jessica Bannister than chasing down her next scoop to splash across the front page of the newspaper she works for, but family is definitely one of them. After the death of her parents at the age of twelve, she has been extremely protective of her only living relative, Aunt Bell, who is as much her best friend and confidante as she is the woman who raised her, so when a run-in with a malevolent shadow being leaves her great-aunt feeling very weak, the ambitious young journalist is at pains to do everything she can for her. Luckily, this aligns with her editor-in-chief's plans, though she soon finds out that not all families are as open and honest with each other as her own, and dark secrets from the past can end up shredding the bonds between ancestors and descendants, fathers and sons, and partners and future in-laws. But when old friends and new acquaintances bring danger to her door, can her supernatural gifts keep her and her family safe?

Supernatural gifts can be a boon and a burden in equal measures, as investigative reporter Jessica Bannister is finding out. While she often finds them helpful for solving mysteries of the paranormal kind, they have an unerring tendency to place her slap bang in the path of malevolent spirits hell-bent on vengeance for wrongs they feel were committed to them in life. It’s fair to say the London City Observer’s number one journalist would have a much easier life if she wasn’t constantly having to deal with poltergeists, killer waxworks, witches, and demons all setting their sights on her while she’s busy trying to unearth her latest scoop. Unfortunately for her, it seems to be par for the course, and even though death is stalking her around every corner, she remains determined to help the innocent and bag the story her readers desire, even if it means scrambling over broken glass or walking through fire to get it!

As an intrepid reporter for one of London's most widely read tabloids, Jessica Bannister is certainly no stranger to danger and often ends up in dicey situations of the supernatural variety while attempting to bag her next scoop, but when her adversaries have the ability to turn a friend into a foe, she finds herself in a whole new level of peril, unable to trust those closest to her and occasionally even herself! A revelation about her past makes her re-evaluate her supernatural gifts and once again she is left wondering whether they are a boon or a bane, and what exactly the trail of death left in their wake means for her future. While she wrestles with all of these existential questions about the nature of her powers, she finds herself haunted by sinister monks, long-dead serial killers, and perhaps most perplexing of all, unusually vicious swans. What terrifies her the most, however, is the evil that lurks in the hearts of man, and how easy it is for it to bubble up to the surface.