Jude finds the reeking suit laid out on the bed next to where Georgia had been sleeping, even though neither of them had taken it out of the heart-shaped box.

As they are walking to their bedroom Jude sees the dead man in the hallway again, although Georgia doesn’t see him. Later that day Georgia tells Jude that he needs to get rid of the suit because it stinks. Before he died Craddock - who had been a hypnotist and spiritualist - swore to kill Jude and anyone who helped him, and now that Jude has bought and paid for the ghost and the suit they are his forever. Jessica says that Anna killed herself after Jude threw her out and that she (Jessica) had tricked Jude into buying her stepfather Craddock’s ghost on the Internet. The woman is named Jessica Price and she tells Jude that the ghost is the spirit of her stepfather Craddock McDermott, who had also been the stepfather of Jude’s previous girlfriend Anna McDermott. When Danny arrives at his office Jude has him find out who sold him the ghost on the Internet and get her on the telephone. Jude is awakened by a noise at 3:00 the next morning and finds the ghost of an old man sitting in the hallway outside his bedroom, wearing the suit.

She is immediately pricked in the thumb by what she thinks is a pin in the fabric, although Jude can find no pins when he searches the suit. The suit is delivered a few days later and Jude’s 23-year-old live-in girlfriend Georgia removes it from the black heart-shape box it arrives in. Jude, who has been a superstar in the heavy metal rock and roll world for over three decades and has been in semi-retirement for the last few years, has a large collection of macabre items and has Danny buy the ghost – and the old-fashioned suit that it supposedly inhabits – on the spot. He asks Jude if he wants to buy a ghost on the Internet. One day Judas Coyne’s personal assistant Danny stops him as he is walking past his office in Jude’s large farmhouse in New York. They are able to contact the spirit of Jude’s ex-girlfriend Anna who eventually helps them to destroy Craddock, but not before Jude and Georgia learn how much they love and need each other. Craddock has sworn to kill Jude and anyone who helps him he makes Jude’s personal assistant hang himself, and is almost able to make Jude kill his live-in girlfriend Georgia and then himself. After the suit and the ghost are delivered, Jude learns that it is the spirit of Craddock McDermott, the stepfather of one of Jude’s ex-girlfriends named Anna McDermott, who supposedly committed suicide shortly after Jude broke up with her.

In the novel, 54-year-old heavy metal music legend Judas Coyne buys a ghost (and the suit it supposedly inhabits) online as an addition to his collection of macabre items. Heart-Shaped Box is the debut novel by Joe Hill.

The heart shaped box book