Date published: January 2007
ISBN: 978-0446616010
Genre: Mystery
Mass Market Paperback
Reviewed by Gina
Reclusive, slightly neurotic ghost writer Lee Bartholomew pretty much has her life in order. She lives in a wonderful old house in Notting Hill in England, has been dating the same man for eight years give or take and gets to meet some of the most fascinating people around when she settles in to ghost write their life stories. Her parents retired to France and left Hope in charge of their home. While her mother is gregarious and has a zest for living, Lee prefers to spend her days alone, writing her books and avoiding danger. Boyfriend Tommy Kennedy, an engineer for the BBC, wants nothing more than to marry her and settle in with a pack of little Kennedy’s. Things are going swimmingly until she awakes one morning to the news that one of her neighbors has died in a fire.
Before Lee can process her neighbor being killed in an intentionally set fire, her agent, calls her into town with an exciting new ghost writing project. A famous soap actress has decided it is time to tell her story. Despite her love of solitude, with a murderer on the loose, Lee seeks the comfort of Tommy’s presence while the killer is sought. Before Lee can completely dig into the story, a series of events unfold including a brooding police detective dogging her tail, the demise of her parents’ marriage, an affair with a married man, the return of a childhood friend and a tenant in the garden cottage. That would be among other events and people descending on Lee’s otherwise orderly world. But when the killer sets his…or her sights on Lee, someone needs to do some quick thinking or she will die.
I was drawn to Hope McIntyre’s HOW TO SEDUCE A GHOST because of the title. I had gone to the library to pick up a mystery by another author for a reading group and spotted Ms. McIntyre’s HOW TO SEDUCE A GHOST and HOW TO MARRY A GHOST. Immediately I was intrigued and picked both books up. My mind flew to the possibilities of a ghost helping to solve his or her murder mixed with a blend of one my favorite movies, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. This is not a paranormal series. It is not about a ghost in the common way we think of a ghost and that strongly colored my perceptions of the first book, HOW TO SEDUCE A GHOST. Putting my own disappointment aside, I read on and continued to be disillusioned with the story. Although she is the heroine of the piece, Lee does little to solve the crime and as the story is told in the first person, it is more of someone talking about an incident in their neighborhood. A tragic one to be sure, but nothing to feel emotional about. I felt little connection to any of the characters.
While the author had some solid threads including rising up from an abusive relationship, infidelity and of course, murder, I felt there were too many all at once. It would have been a much better read to have narrowed the scope and left some of the threads for another tale.
That said, there were two reasons I continued on to the second book in the series, HOW TO MARRY A GHOST. The first is how Ms. McIntyre paints life in Notting Hill in a marvelous array of words. The reader can hear the conversation between the characters as if it occurring before him or her. In this way Ms. McIntyre has a wonderful way with words. The other is Lee’s penchant for living the life of a recluse, preferring to keep to herself, live alone and enjoy the peaceful order of her life. That described me to a T and I felt a kinship with her angst at having so many people trample through her home. There really weren’t that many and she invited them in, yet at the same time she really wanted her solitude back. I continued on to HOW TO MARRY A GHOST and happily read on.
Do check out HOW TO SEDUCE A GHOST if for no other reason than to learn the players in HOW TO MARRY A GHOST. Then pick up and cozy up with HOW TO MARRY A GHOST.
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