As darkness falls and shadows lengthen, Nevada City, illuminated by flickering gas streetlights, and Grass Valley, with its more rough and tumble Gold Rush era ambience, become perfect settings for a ghost story. Or, perhaps, I should say ghost stories for these towns harbor far more than their fair share of lingering spirits and numerous houses and storefronts conceal dark secrets behind their carefully restored and attractively painted exteriors. In fact, if a proper statistical analysis could be done, if judged by the average number of ghosts per block, Nevada City and Grass Valley might well be found to be the most haunted towns in all of California, if not the entire American West. Having conducted historical ghost tours of Nevada City and Grass Valley for over eighteen years, Mark Lyon guides the reader through both the history and the ghost lore of two of the most charming relics of the California gold rush.