John Harwood - The Ghost Writer

Pros: Well written and intricate tale of generational intrigue.
Cons: There are tangents to sift through.

Secrets have a cost attached to them. They come with obligations. The secrets must not only be protected but also nurtured. Family secrets exact a price.

Gerard Freeman has grown up with his mother's secrets, ones that confound him and haunt him. She said she did things to keep him safe. Did she?

His quest to find out the truth about his family's past involves an intricate plot spanning generations as detailed in The Ghostwriter (2004, Harcourt, 370 pages), John Harwood's first novel.

The moon still shone through my eyelids. A barred shadow touched my face. I shot bolt upright with a shriek that rang and reverberated around the library and died to a slow drip, drip, drip somewhere beneath the couch. I had lost control of my bladder. [page 323]

As with The Séance, Harwood has layered a story within a story, involving use of flashbacks, letters, and other narrative twists. A series of ghostly tales tie the larger narrative together with enough psychological turmoil to make one wish for the light of day and the coming reasonableness of the sun.

The Ghostwriter is a solid mix of gothic and Victorian horror that should please fans of the genre. (four stars).