Five-year old Jessica lives with her father, mother, and fourteen-year old half-brother Robert. Half-sister Brenda, twenty-two, has left home to try to make a living as an artist. Jessica's father Paul is very busy with work, and hardly interacts with her. Robert spends his days in his room listening to music. So when her mother Diane suddenly leaves to pursue a career in New Orleans, Jessica is devastated and lonely. It is no surprise that she seeks comfort elsewhere.
Upon discovering a set of ancient dolls in a nearby abandoned mansion, she quickly forms a strong attachment and prefers to spend her days in their company. Mrs. Archer, who has been the family housekeeper for years, becomes concerned about how Jessica keeps disappearing for hours on end. She follows Jessica one day and learns part of what has been going on. Mrs. Archer has strong feelings about the danger of "hants, spooks, and ghosts", and asks Jessica to never go to the old mansion again.
After Jessica has a horrible dream and screams during the night, she tells her father about the spooks and ghosts that Mrs. Archer had mentioned, whereupon he immediately fires the housekeeper. Realizing that he cannot spend time with Jessica, Paul recruits daughter Brenda to come home for the summer. Meanwhile, Jessica continues to spend time with the only friends she knows. Brenda arrives to find that Mrs. Archer has gone missing, and that Jessica's nightmares are becoming worse each night. In addition, when Diane returns to pick up Jessica and take her with her to the city, she has a terrible wreck close to the house. Robert observes some unusual circumstances related to Diane's return, and decides to investigate on his own. No one in the family has any real inkling of the real depth of the mystery . . .
Ruby Jean Jensen (1927 - 2010) authored more than 30 novels and over 200 short stories. Her passion for writing developed at an early age, and she worked for many years to develop her writing skills. After having many short stories published, in 1974 the novel The House that Samael Built was accepted for publication. She then quickly established herself as a professional author, with representation by a Literary Agent from New York. She subsequently sold 29 more novels to several New York publishing houses. After four Gothic Romance, three Occult and then three Horror novels, MaMa was published by Zebra books in 1983. With Zebra, Ruby Jean completed nineteen more novels in the Horror genre. Ruby was involved with creative writing groups for many years, and she often took the time to encourage young authors and to reply to fan mail. Ruby Jean, a supreme story-teller, quickly captures and holds your attention. Her books, written for adults, are also suitable for adolescents and young adults. She has an enthusiastic following in the Horror genre.
