Ghost Stories of the Great Lakes

Phantom ships, restless lighthouse keepers and haunted shorelines on North America’s inland seas. A Paranormal Nonfiction Novel by Mark Leslie

Beneath the surface of the Great Lakes lie more than six thousand shipwrecks—and, if the stories whispered along their shores are to be believed, a great many souls who never made it back to land. In Ghost Stories of the Great Lakes, Mark Leslie sets out on a clockwise journey around all five lakes and the waters that bind them, including Lake St. Clair, gathering the phantom vessels, restless lighthouse keepers, haunted islands and shoreline legends that have unsettled sailors and townsfolk for generations.

Drawing on newspaper archives, historical records, Indigenous oral traditions and the accounts of people who were there, Leslie blends maritime history, regional folklore and paranormal investigation into a guided tour of North America’s inland seas—from the ship-swallowing Marysburgh Vortex of Lake Ontario to the cold, deep silence of Superior.

Whether readers live along the lakes or simply love them, this is a book about the hidden histories, unsolved mysteries and lingering presences embedded in every shoreline.

WHY BOOKSELLERS AND LIBRARIANS WILL LOVE IT

• Regional reach on both sides of the border: More than 120 haunted locations and 180 stories spanning Canadian and American shorelines—from Kingston to Duluth, Detroit to Thunder Bay.
• Built for hand-selling: organized as a lake-by-lake tour, so staff can point local readers straight to the stories in their own backyard.
• A perfect Halloween-season title with year-round shelf life in Local Interest, Canadiana, Folklore and Maritime History.
• Respectful, well-sourced storytelling: research supported by the Ontario Arts Council; endnotes and a companion online source list for the curious.
• An author who respects the business: Mark spent decades in Canadian bookselling and is an experienced, energetic event partner—readings, ghost walks, panels and library talks.

UNIQUE AUTHOR BOOK TOUR

In the first 12 to 18 months of the book’s release, the author plans promotional visits to as many of the cities and towns (and stops in between) that are featured in the book. The tour includes circumnavigating Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, the Ontario shorelines of Lake Huron and Lake Superior, and key locations in the U.S. along Lake Michigan, Huron, and Superior.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mark Leslie has been afraid of the dark for as long as he can remember—and has spent most of his life writing about what lives there. A writer, speaker and podcaster with more than three decades in the Canadian book industry as a bookseller, bookstore manager and publishing representative, he is the author of the paranormal nonfiction titles Haunted Hamilton, Spooky Sudbury, Creepy Capital, Haunted Hospitals and Macabre Montreal, as well as horror (One Hand Screaming: 20 Haunting Years) and urban fantasy (A Canadian Werewolf in New York). Raised in Northern Ontario near the shores of Georgian Bay, a Hamiltonian for twenty years, and now at home in Kitchener-Waterloo, Mark has never lived far from the Great Lakes—or from the stories they keep.

To request additional review copies or an interview with J.M. Shaw, please contact Mickey Mikkelson at Creative Edge Publicity: mickey.creativeedge@gmail.com / 403.464.6925.

We look forward to the coverage!