Comprising recollections of personal encounters and the fruits of scholarly research, Tiya Miles's Tales from the Haunted South: Dark Tourism and Memories of Slavery from the Civil War Era offers a challenging and thought-provoking interrogation of the rise of so-called “dark tourism” and of the implications of this phenomenon for the legacy of slavery in contemporary American culture. A relatively short monograph, Tales from the Haunted South is published as part of the Steven and Janice Brose Lectures in the Civil War Era, a collaborative endeavour of the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center at Penn State University and the University of North Carolina Press. Stemming from such sources as archival records, information supplied for tourists and observations made on numerous ghost tours in the South, Miles's book consists chiefly of three distinct, yet interconnected, case studies that make manifest her interest in the exploitation of African American history by popular initiatives of the twenty-first-century tourist industry: “Each of these stories of slavery and haunting is linked to historic sites that are also public attractions; each story has been incorporated into the ghost-tour industry; each derives from events – real or imagined – in the antebellum period; and each has been widely popularized in contemporary cultural production” (18–19).

The Introduction contextualizes the study with a definition of dark tourism as “the exploration of death, disaster, and suffering through travel” (10), and identifies some preliminary observations as to the reasons for its appeal. Following this, chapter 1 commences with Miles's second visit to Savannah, Georgia as part of an ongoing quest for information about Molly, the ghost of a young black slave, whose story piqued Miles sufficiently to provoke her wider investigation of ghost tourism. Here, a ghost tour of the Sorrel-Weed House puts forth a tale of “sexual impropriety, slavery, suicide, and murder” (22) that does much to inspire Miles's sympathy and interest. When further scholarly enquiry reveals that Molly is essentially a myth, Miles is moved to explore why ghost stories have such currency in the South nonetheless. Chapter 2 documents Miles's time in New Orleans, describing experiences ranging from the mainstream Gray Line Cemetery and Voodoo Tour to a more personalized tour of paranormal sites in a city imbued with a “mystique that pulls tourists in like a magnet” (48). The main focus here is on the notorious eighteenth-century slaveholder Madame Delphine Lalaurie, whose cruelty to her slaves has placed her firmly at the heart of the city's thriving trade in ghosts. Once again, Miles detects more than a little fiction mingled in with the facts, as Lalaurie's legend owes much to her real-life status as a woman who failed to conform to the lingering stereotype of the “idealized southern lady” (73). The third and final chapter sees Miles head to rural Louisiana to visit those “iconic abodes of movie set and postcard fame” (80) so essential to the region's tourist appeal. A key focus here is the Myrtles Plantation in St. Francisville, reputedly haunted by the ghosts of Chloe, a slave girl, and Cleo, a slave renowned as a Voodoo priestess. Here, the Myrtles Mystery Tour – extra-busy at Halloween – provides Miles with insights into the power exerted by these tales of violence and intrigue, often exaggerated or outright fabricated, that centre on black female protagonists.

Tales from the Haunted South delivers a fascinating exploration of the darker side of present-day tourist practices. The detail on the various ghost tours and the hype surrounding them is compelling. However, given Miles's scholarly reservations about the sensationalism that often accompanies such treatments of troubling histories, her occasional tendencies towards evocative prose arguably add to the aura of melodrama. Further, because of the emphasis on the role of storytelling in this industry, it would be useful to devote more time to the academic literature on ghost stories. Both American Gothic and the haunted-house tale are given only scant attention here and their literary tropes would undoubtedly enhance understandings of the allure of such subject matter for today's tourist. All in all, though, this study does much to highlight the power of haunting to draw us in, to “compel us to wrestle with the past” (132), and thus, perhaps, to help us see our own world anew.