

However, their group once consisted of five members.

For the past 50 years these best friends have gathered together and told each other stories and have been great companions.

Living in the small upstate New York town of Milburn (a fictional location which is indicated to be in Broome County east of Binghamton) are four elderly men who are members of a clique called the Chowder Society: John Jaffrey, a doctor Lewis Benedikt, a retired entrepreneur Sears James, an attorney and Ricky Hawthorne, an attorney and James' partner. Eventually, Donald and the girl arrive in Panama City, Florida, at which point the novel jumps back in time to the events of the previous winter. The novel opens with a man named Donald Wanderley traveling with a young girl whom he has apparently kidnapped. It was a watershed in Straub's career, becoming a national bestseller and cementing his reputation. It was published on January 1, 1979, by Coward, McCann and Geoghegan, and adapted as a 1981 horror film, minus the fifth protagonist, Lewis Benedikt. Ghost Story is a horror novel by American writer Peter Straub.
