132,585
edits
Changes
How to Seduce a Ghost by Hope McIntyre (view source)
Revision as of 15:59, 6 August 2020
, 15:59, 6 August 2020no edit summary
|aznus=044661601X
}}
Lee is a ghost writer ghostwriter and she lives in a crumbling old house in Notting Hill. It's actually owned by her parents but she lives there rent-free in exchange for keeping up with the repairs, but if she doesn't look at them she can believe they're not there. She's got something of a commitment phobia and although she loves Tommy, her boyfriend of eight years, she can't bear the thought of moving in with him - or he with her. But when a children's television presenter dies in a fire just down the road she wonders if she might be wise to change her mind.
Her latest project is a book for an American soap opera star, but the book's not all that it first seemed and there are complications when Lee finds herself sexually attracted to the soap star's manager. Meanwhile , her parents, who live in France, have their own problems and soon they're going to be Lee's too, along with another death after a fire.
I did enjoy this book. I sat outside in the shade one sunny afternoon and didn't move until I'd finished it. The characterisation is excellent. I surprised myself by liking Lee but I understood her need for isolation whilst she worked and her horror of Tommy's untidiness. Tommy's a great big bear of a man, occasionally impatient with Lee's reluctance to make any sort of long-term commitment but with his own feet of clay. There's good and bad in all the characters, even Buzz Kempinski, soap star Selma Walker's manager. I wanted to tell Lee to keep away from him, whilst still knowing that it would be impossible. It's a wonderful study of the relationships within families, between men and women, parents and children.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending this book to The Bookbag; finding a new crime writer is always a real pleasure.
If this type of book appeals to you then you might also enjoy Simon Beckett's [[The Chemistry of Death]]. We can also recommend [[A Certain Chemistry by Mil Millington]].
{{amazontext|amazon=0749937084}}