Hubler (Hilda Heeks, Ghost Hunter) offers a colorful buddy comedy of a ghost and a traveling salesman in a story about life choices and unlikely friendships. Exhausted fertilizer salesman Ray Heeks is in Georgia for a presentation tomorrow and takes the last hotel room available where the TV turns itself on and off and Ray hears voices in the empty room. Soon Ray is face to face with Augustus “Gus” Larson, a naked man who appears ”to be made from plastic wrap” enthusiastically pressing the TV remote. Gus died in the shower during the first Bush administration, wasn’t ready to go toward the light, and has been trapped in the room ever since. Ray helps Gus be able to leave the room, which is just in time, because persistent Peaches Poindexter, the Poltergeist Pulminator ghost hunter, is on their tails, forcing the duo into an improbable road trip.

With a playful yet swift pace, Hubler packs on the humor and daft gags (a manual titled How to be a Success in the Spirit World and on Wall Street, the possibility that ghosts are “like the hobos who’d mark the fence posts of homes with kindly housewives”) as the woefully unprepared travelers wing it. Gus wants Ray to take him home to see his sister and best friend in Minnesota, but first Ray— “the ringmaster of this circus”—needs to confront his effusive wife Hilda who thinks he’s having an affair with Peaches. A comedy of errors ensues, involving a jalopy RV and a surprising hitchhiker, the ghostly fire-and-brimstone Most Reverend Silas Simon Barnet.

Readers who like spirited, feel-good adventure will happily cheer on the frazzled but resourceful salesman and his loquacious ghostly pal who has a penchant for roadside diners even though he can’t eat. Sharp prose, an ear for comic dialogue, and on-the-road detail ground the silliness. This charming comedy is perfect for a beach or vacation read.

Takeaway: This spirited buddy comedy with a heart is a ghostly road trip that leaves readers smiling.

Great for fans of: S.G. Tasz’s Welcome to Halcyon, Jack Townsend’s Tales from the Gas Station.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A