Longtime readers might remember that a few years ago I did a retrospective series on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and various adaptations of it. Had I known about this book at that time, I would have included it, because it’s another fine riff on the classic tale.

Our protagonist is Josie Penninger, a young woman cursed with the ability to see spirits. She lives in present-day Sleepy Hollow and makes a living working in her mother’s coffee shop and communicating with ghosts in her spare time.

But one day, a stranger comes to town, taking an interest in the prize of her mother’s collection of Sleepy Hollow paraphernalia: a copy of A History of New England Witchcraft said to have belonged to Ichabod Crane himself. The controversy over whether or not Ichabod Crane existed does nothing to diminish the value of the book.

From there, things get wild. Josie finds herself caught up in an inter-dimensional war in the spirit realm, involving the ghostly guardians of the town, a wise-cracking ghost hunter, and of course, the headless Hessian himself.

The plot is rather complicated, as it involves time-travel and all the mind-bending complexities that go along with such a story. But the dialogue is fast-paced and fun, and the action is like something out of an ’80s movie. The creative decision that ghosts can be shot makes for some easy-to-follow battles.

Nothing better summarizes this book than this simple fact: there is a scene where the Headless Horseman wields an M134 minigun. If this doesn’t tell you what kind of story this is, I don’t know what will. And, most delightfully, this scene is illustrated, so we get the full visual of an 18th century mercenary decked out in ammo belts.

That’s what this book is: classic folklore wedded to the sensibility of a Schwarzenegger movie. If that sounds like something you’d enjoy, check it out.