Widow’s Point: The Complete Haunting by Richard Chizmar and W.H. Chizmar is a found footage horror about a haunted lighthouse in Nova Scotia, Canada. The horror is an atmospheric ghost story captured on camera and voice recordings. There are two separate hauntings, one of which took place in 2017 with a solo ghost hunter. The second takes place in 2025, with a Mr. Beast-like YouTube star bringing friends and ghost hunters with state-of-the-art equipment. The book is broken into two parts: the 2017 timeline and the 2025 timeline. The 2025 team listens to the 2017 haunting while at the same lighthouse. The 2017 haunting was the original Widow’s Point novella. Widow’s Point has had quite a journey, as it started as a short story in an anthology on haunted places. Then it was turned into a novella and finally expanded into a novel. I liked the novella a lot; it had a great pace and some general scares. Then the expansion with more people and multiple cameras is so boring. The pace slows down to a crawl. The story does very little with the Mr. Beast-like character, Trent. The back half turns into a slow burn. Where characters keep doubting the haunting. The ending was good, but too little too late. I think Widow’s Point does not work as a novel and should have stayed a novella. I read Widow’s Point thanks to Gallery Books, which sent me an advanced reader’s copy. Richard Chizmar did sign the ARC, which I am thankful for. Widow’s Point was published on September 30, 2025.

Why did I read Widow’s Point by Richard Chizmar and W.H. Chizmar? I enjoyed Richard Chizmar’s Memorials and Moving Day short story in The Stand Anthology. I thought the found footage in a haunted lighthouse was super interesting. I liked how Chizmar used the camera’s perspective in Memorials for documentary footage.

Plot Summary: Livingston is a ghost hunter. He has written several books on haunted places. He is going to stay at his last destination, Widow’s Point lighthouse in Nova Scotia. The reader listens to Livingston. He breaks down the history of Widow’s Point. He recounts all the people who died or went missing on the property. As he is telling these stories, strange things are happening around him. Is it a haunting or madness? Livingston locked himself in the lighthouse with instructions to open it in two days. When it is opened, Livingston is never found. His tapes were a mystery. A thief steals them for Trent, an ultra-rich YouTube star. He buys the haunted Widow’s Point lighthouse. He plans to shoot for 6 days and end the shoot the day after Halloween. He invites his crew, made up of friends and two ghost hunters. One of the Ghost hunters is from the town, grew up, and has not returned since her father’s death. The team has hidden agendas; not everyone wants the lighthouse to be haunted for views and clout.

What I Liked: The history of the lighthouse was the best thing. It was interesting and haunting. How it was built, and all the people who went missing and died there. The stairs scenes got me. To be walking on seemingly endless stairs, and the number of stairs changes. There are a couple more things with the stairs that are all in the original novella. I won’t spoil them. They are great. There’s a body reveal that got me. I was not expecting it, and the way it was written was great. The novel also does horror with mannequins. Mannequins and wooden puppets, horror works well on me. I found those mannequin scenes creepy and affective, but there were not enough of them, though. The camera sees stuff that the group does not see; it only happens twice, and it should have more. The endings to both 2017 and 2025 were good.

What I Disliked: Too many questions remained unanswered at the end of the book. The cameras took a little getting used to. The person spoke to the camera and said “I”. However, when someone watched it back, they would say the character’s name did this action. It was a little confusing and took some time to get used to the format. The piecing together of 2017 to 2025 was sloppy and disjointed. In 2017, we see what the lighthouse can do. It haunts in two days. In 2025, they spend 6 days with it. The lighthouse slowly plays the horror and waits for the last day to get horrific. Hearing a member of the team, I got a bad feeling that this was driving me crazy. It is a haunted lighthouse with many deaths; just acknowledge it is haunted.

Recommendation: Widow’s Point is disappointing to me because the history and the 2017 segment were good. The 2025 segment should have been great. What happened with one person in the house, can you imagine 4-5 people? Then the book slows down so much, and we only get tiny glimpses of stuff happening. I recommend my followers skip Widow’s Point. Read the much better Memorials by Richard Chizmar instead.

Rating: Widow’s Point by Richard Chizmar and W.H. Chizmar. I rated 2.5 out of 5.