What mystery of the bayouland is yet unexplored? What secrets of the swamp whisper in the wind and await discovery? What are the ghosts along the bayou? Author Christine Word shares a treasure of ghost stories in Ghosts Along the Bayou.

A young girl appears at a bridge near sunset, demanding the attention of passers-by, only to disappear again. Balls of light herald the arrival of galloping horses, invisible to the eye. And water douses an old lady in Grand Prairie, while the spirit of a long dead Frenchman claims responsibility through a psychic.

Acadiana is full of the spiritual world — from poltergeists to haunts; from Cajun feu follets to apparitions; and from disembodied voices to the sounds of battles fought long ago. The places they haunt vary from plantation homes to Cajun cottages; mobile homes to cane fields; from a rectory to a bridge; from new houses to places of business. And the people who have encountered them range from priests to psychics; carpenters to executives; medical professionals to professors.

Ghosts Along the Bayou is not an attempt to prove or disprove. It is instead an unembellished account of strange tales told by the people of Acadiana who have encountered ghosts along the bayou.

Christine Kennedy Word is a wife, writer, and mother of five children. She is a graduate of the University of Southwestern Louisiana. A freelance writer since 1985, her works have been published in local newspapers and magazines.

Her interest in ghost stories was sparked in the unlikely setting of a college economics class. She and her husband make their home in Lafayette Parish.

Word will be signing Ghosts Along the Bayou from 2 to 4 p.m. on Thursday at Cover to Cover Books & More. She will give a book review at the Vidalia branch of the Concordia Parish Library at 6 p.m. Call 445-5752 for more information.