GHOST LIGHT, by Rick Hautala, Zebra Books, 512 pages, $4.99.

As he has done so often in the past, Rick Hautala zeroes in on the apparent and hidden secrets of family life, where ordinary men, women and children are thrust unexpectedly into danger by sources human and otherwise.

“Ghost Light” begins in Omaha, Neb., on a night when Debbie Harris decides to confront her husband, Alex, about his abusive behavior. The encounter does not go well; Debbie is killed in her own kitchen, and Alex quickly takes steps to try to cover up what he has done.

The problem is that Debbie has a sister, Cindy, who has known the truth about Alex for a long time. When Debbie’s will is read, custody of the two children is given to Cindy, and despite Alex’s protestations, she determines to do as her sister wished.

There are a lot of problems with this novel, starting with the confrontation between Debbie and Alex; it is highly unlikely that an abused wife would deliberately choose to confront her husband on a night when he comes home drunk and belligerent. Such women usually choose to flee without warning, when their spouses aren’t around.

Not only are readers forced to deal with this kind of credibility gap fewer than 30 pages into the book, the resulting police investigation is sketchy and unrealistic. Alex’s initial interrogation is short and sloppy; we are asked to believe that he has gotten away with murder when even a rookie cop would spot the holes in his story a mile away. The autopsy is mentioned only briefly, without details, and little is said about further police investigation — routine tasks such as searching for evidence and asking friends and neighbors about the couple. The assumption is that the case is closed, and that the children, Billy and Krissy, are in immediate danger.

Cindy Toland’s marriage is also in trouble. She is convinced her husband, Harry, no longer loves her, and it is implied that she is no longer particularly wild about him. Yet Harry voices little objection about taking in his niece and nephew.

The character of Cindy is that of an unreasonable and exasperating person with whom one feels little empathy. We do feel somewhat sorry for Harry and understand perfectly when we learn he is having an affair. While Harry is with his lover, Cindy takes it upon herself to head for Alex’s house to kidnap the children (an extreme reaction considering the short time span since her sister’s death). They pile into her car and head for Maine, where Harry’s deceased Uncle Richard just happens to have a camp at Little Sebago. Money poses no problems in this unlikely escapade; Cindy happens to have $35,000 at her disposal. Soon she discovers she and the children are not alone; a presence dubbed “The Blue Lady,” apparently Debbie’s benevolent ghost who cannot rest until her children are safe, journeys along with them.

The most frightening thing about “Ghost Light” is the cover art. We anticipate the course of the book from the beginning, and are denied the fun of any surprises. The characters are paper people: We do not particularly like them, nor do we see them as believable. The novel has a sense of being “cranked out” to meet a deadline, with no time taken for careful plotting and badly needed revisions. Pacing is sluggish, and the book could easily have been cut by 200 pages. The reader must endure rereading the same material over and over and over again, and withstand a merciless barrage of exasperating exclamation points.

“Ghost Light” is a bit of a puzzle; Hautala’s earlier books showed a great deal of promise, and in “Winter Wake” had begun to realize that promise. He had also begun to be recognized as a major talent in the horror genre. “Ghost Light” does nothing to justify that reputation. The book is not suspenseful, it is not frightening, and it certainly doesn’t qualify as horror. If Hautala is to retain his hard-earned reputation in the field, he needs to approach new work by challenging himself to remedy his problems and maximize his strengths.

It is hoped that “Ghost Light” will be merely a bump in the road, an unfortunate aberration, and that Hautala’s next novel will showcase his many talents and treat us to frights and shivers instead of yawns.

Janet Beaulieu is a free-lance writer who lives in Bangor.