The coastal areas around Wellington have got crowded lately. Ghosts, a psychic, an ex-cop, a retired librarian, triplets, a theme park and Marie Curie have taken up residence, and novels by Damien Wilkins (Delirious), Mandy Hager (Strays & Waifs) and Tracy Farr (Wonderland) are responsible. Mary McCallum asks why these writers went coastal so close to home and what it brought to their novels.