Review: The Flip

The Flip by Michael Phillip Cash
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Julie and Brad are a married couple who are trying to earn extra money by flipping houses. They are living on a shoe-string budget and hope that each house that they fix-up will be their big score.

Everything is going well until they bite off more than they can chew with the Hemming House. Hemming House is a sprawling Victorian manor on Bedlam street. It's huge, dirty, out-of-date, and its secrets will put Julie and Brad's marriage to the test. Julie loves the house and wants to keep it and open a bed and breakfast. Brad who spends most of his day actually working on the house thinks there is something off about the place and wants to sell sooner rather than later.

The former inhabitants of the house have left behind a few surprises. Did I mention the house is haunted?

The Flip is a great short novel (novella?) with well-developed characters and excellent pacing. It is a ghost story without being horror. Instead of in your face blood and guts, the author gave the characters that subtle feeling of being watched that makes the reader sit up straight and look around.

He tells the story from two perspectives the living and the dead. The ghosts have a story that is just as interesting and well crafted as the one about their living counterparts.

This book is certainly a page-turner and it's short enough to be devoured in an afternoon. The ending was a little contrived and wrapped things up too quickly and conveniently. There were also some unanswered questions. All in all, I enjoyed the story and will look for more books by Michael Phillip Cash who never disappoints.

I really wish I could give half stars. This book would get 3 1/2 if I had that option. It's above average, and I'd recommend it to my friends but my personal feelings about the ending would take away that half star.

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