I ain’t afraid of no ghosts.

’Tis the season for ghosts and goblins, but real ghosts don’t disappear after Halloween. In fact, there are some that are alleged to have hung around Massachusetts for hundreds of years.

In her book, Dead Whispers, A.E. Angel documents New England’s haunted past as her paranormal investigation team, Whaling City Ghosts (WCG), explore eight haunted locations. Angel and her team try to bond with the spirits ~ some benevolent and some evil ~ at storied locations like Salem, the site of the witch trials, and the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast Museum, where an axe murderer killed Borden’s parents more than 100 years ago.

Lizzie, who was accused of the crime and then later released, is said to be one of the many spirits haunting the house. WGH also visits a haunted gentlemen’s club, where the spirits of prostitutes are rumored to wander the halls, and an old mill, where Angel and her team recorded a series of female screams from beyond the grave. WCG also has visited private homes, including Angel’s own house, which is haunted by a sinister spirit, a black shadow that seems to awake with each full moon.

Angel provides a thoughtful narrative of her adventures, including theories and background stories of the ghosts she and her team think they have come across in each location. However, the best part is that this book is equipped with a CD of EVPs (electronic voice phenomenon, a specialized method used to record the sounds of spirits), so the reader can actually listen to the recordings that the author and her team have captured. One of the most chilling of these EVPs is that of a female voice at the Lizzie Borden B&B saying, “I’m a good daughter,” which Angel believes to be Lizzie. Another interesting EVP recorded at the B&B: A spirit telling the investigators, “Why don’t you go F*$# yourself.”

WCG also investigates the Freetown-Fall River State Forest, the location of cult killings in the 1970s, including those of three prostitutes. This area is known as the Bridgewater Triangle, a 200-square-mile wetland area in southeastern Massachusetts. The legend of the Hockomock, as the area is fondly called, is laid out by Peter Tower in his recent book Hockomock: Place Where the Spirits Dwell.

Although I was hoping for more “ghost stories” in Tower’s book, it is a detailed account of the rich history of the area from 23,000 B.C. through the 20th century. While there are no EVPs in this book, Tower documents the paranormal phenomena that has occurred in the Hockomock through the years, including UFO, bigfoot, black dog and thunderbird sightings. The author also writes about the mysterious murder of a 15-year-old girl in the same woods where the cult killings occurred.

Whether or not ghosts exist has always been a polarizing argument (as a fan of the Travel Channel show Ghost Adventures, I’ve endured my share of ridicule), these two books might be enough to make the utmost skeptic a believer.

Both books are available on amazon.com.

By Kimberly Dunbar