GHOSTLY TALES OF LOVE AND REVENGE

Cohen's Ghosts of War (1990) were men; here, women's ghosts comprise most of the cast—women who died betrayed or abandoned, by murder or accident; who returned for love, vengeance, or (in one case) jewelry. Most haunt the British Isles, Japan, or the US and date back no more than a century or two; the ``Headless Lover'' of Brooke End and New York's ``Empire State Building Ghost'' are of particularly recent vintage. Cohen's lucid style is well-suited to creating chills, and he seasons his narrative with an occasional grisly touch—``His face had become a mask of skin tightly stretched over a grinning skull.'' ``Put aside your doubts,'' he advises, ``and read on.'' Perhaps not at night. (Nonfiction. 11-13)