The series takes place in a small town called Bluff City in the early 1900s, along the Mississippi River.  The first book focuses on a book named Alexander Armsworth, who discovers that he can see ghosts when he finds out that the barn on his family’s property is haunted.  Blossom Culp is a strange girl in his class at school.  She’s a poor girl from a family of outcasts, and she helps him to set the ghost to rest.

The other books in the series focus on Blossom herself.  She is also psychic, and Alexander helps her with some ghosts that she sees.  There are hints that Blossom has a crush on Alexander, and in one book, there are indications that the two of them may be married in the future.  Alexander is sometimes fascinated by Blossom and often exasperated with her and the chaos that she and their psychic abilities get them into.

Blossom and her mother live by themselves in a shack near the Armsworth property.  Her parents aren’t actually divorced, although her mother ran her father off a long time ago because she was tired of his drunkenness.  Blossom’s mother makes some money telling fortunes, and they steal from time to time to support themselves.

I don’t think that the books ever say which state Bluff City is in, but the About the Author section in the back of the books says that it’s modeled on the author’s hometown in Illinois (although that town isn’t on the Mississippi), and there are references to the real Sikeston, Missouri, which is where Blossom and her mother were from before they moved to Bluff City.  I think Bluff City is probably in western Illinois, but that’s just an opinion.

Books in the Series:

The Ghost Belonged to Me

The ghost of a young girl who died in an accident is haunting Alexander’s barn.  She needs his help in order for her body to be found and returned to her family’s crypt in New Orleans.

Ghosts I Have Been

Blossom has visions of the final moments of a young boy who died on the Titanic and seeks justice for him from the parents who abandoned him to die while they saved themselves.

The Dreadful Future of Blossom Culp

Blossom is accidentally sent into the future shortly before Halloween, ending up in the 1980s.  There, she befriends a lonely boy and finds the inspiration she needs to solve the problems she has in her own time.

Blossom Culp and the Sleep of Death

Blossom must help an Egyptian princess to return to her tomb.