Review: The Trailwalker (Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper #13) by J.L. Bryan

Title: The Trailwalker

Series: Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper #13

Previous books in this series: Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper (#1) | Cold Shadows (#2) | The Crawling Darkness (#3) | Terminal (#4) | House of Whispers #5 | Maze of Souls #6 | Lullaby (#7) | The Keeper (#8) | The Tower (#9) | The Monster Museum (#10) | Fire Devil (#11) | The Necromancer's Library (#12)

Author: J.L. Bryan

Genre: Adult, paranormal, horror

Publication date: October 1st 2020

Published by: J.L. Bryan

Source: eARC from author

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Synopsis: The old campground in the mountains has a shrouded history wrapped in legend. Located by the mysterious mounds of a vanished people, it was once a popular summer destination for children, but closed long ago under tragic circumstances.

Josh and Allison Conner have moved out from the city, inspired to create a retreat for children in need, a place to build skills and character. They've brought their own children with them, and now they're hurrying to rebuild and update the old camp in time for their first opening day.

But something lurks in the wilderness around the old summer camp, something that strikes against the Conners' best efforts to revitalize it. They feel watched, then threatened, but after sinking their savings and their hopes into the place, they are unwilling to walk away.

Paranormal investigator Ellie Jordan must sort history from legend to determine what haunts the camp and how to fight it, before it inflicts more harm on the well-meaning family attempting to bring life back to the remote abandoned campground.

My rating: ★★★★★
In this installment of Ellie Jordan, we’re heading to a haunted camp! Very exciting! Especially because we don’t get too many cases set outdoors in this series, which is not a bad thing at all! But I really liked the change. Actually, the settings of every book are quite different from one another and I really appreciate that. But yeah! Haunted camp! 👻

“If it’s haunted, kids will be sensitive to that.”
“Which will kinda ruin camp for them. Or make it extra cool?”
“If there’s a dangerous entity involved, it would not be cool.”
“True,” Stacey said. “Kids do hate getting stalked and murdered in the woods.”

Omg I love Ellie and Stacey! 😂 Their relationship and bickering is one of my favorite things about this series. I just love how bubbly and quippy Stacey is and Ellie is just like *sigh* 😂 I love it! And great characters are always a good thing when you’re 10+ books into a series. Another character I love and was itching to have show up sooner than he did is Jacob! He is Stacey’s boyfriend but also a psychic that helps out the girls on cases. He’s also very funny and just an overall fun character. All the major characters in this series are great!


As for the story itself, I loved it! I liked the setting and the mystery was very intriguing. As you can imagine in a haunted camp, there were deaths left and right and I was just super invested in unraveling the mystery. I’m usually more of an action person (that’s not to say this book wasn’t action-packed, because it was!), but man, I was SO absorbed into the mystery and research and discovering all the little secrets of the camp and the people who worked/went there. It was very intriguing stuff. So you know a book is great when it can make research interesting for me 😂 And speaking of research, I also really love Grant! Ellie seeks out his help when researching things on cases, and he is just a blast! I love every time he shows up, even if it’s only in a phone call.


This was such a good read! Especially because this Fall I’ve been reading so many mediocre books in a row, it was nice to read a book I actually enjoyed. But then again, this is one of my favorite series 😉 I love the characters and the camaraderie between Ellie and Stacey. It had a cool setting, an intriguing story, and I really enjoyed unraveling the mystery along with the characters. Not gonna lie, the one thing I was little concerned about was the possibility of a Native burial ground. But now having finished the book, I think the subject matter was handled pretty well. The climax with the Trailwalker was incredible! It was just such a cool scene! And I really liked the ending and how things were explained. The Trailwalker itself was just a very intriguing being. It was very interesting to learn what they were doing in the camp and what became of them as the book started to wrap up. It was just a great book all around and I am very much looking forward to the next book in the series! 🖤

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! 😊