Review: How to Marry a Ghost

As you might be able to guess from the title, this is Hope McIntyre’s second novel featuring Lee Bartholomew, ghostwriter. Lee leaves the security of her London home for the Hamptons to be the maid of honour in her mother’s commitment ceremony. However, while she is there, a fellow ghostwriter working on the autobiography of ageing rock star Shotgun Marriott is murdered. Lee soon finds herself stepping into the dead woman’s shoes to investigate the murder and write Marriott’s autobiography – but is she endangering her own life?

McIntyre takes a bold step in removing Lee Bartholomew from her London environment. The ghostwriter is reclusive, with a multitude of neuroses and likes environments that she knows well. Luckily, however, it does not take her too long to settle into life on the East End of Long Island – only for her peace and quiet to be upset by the arrival of former fiancé Tommy. In McIntyre’s previous novel, HOW TO SEDUCE A GHOST, I thought that it was easy for the reader to become irritated with Lee and her neurotic behaviour. Here, the arrival of Tommy seems to make the novel drag. For me, the couple’s behaviour became exasperating and I felt that the story could have worked just as well without Tommy’s appearance. However, I can see that McIntyre is endeavouring to strike a balance between a mystery and a novel based on relationships, since the various relationships involved here are integral to the novel as a whole.

On the mystery side of things, I thought the story worked well. There were various suspects and enough twists to keep readers guessing. There seemed to be a couple of loose ends left hanging at the end of the novel, but despite this, HOW TO MARRY A GHOST works well and will capture the reader’s attention.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Luke Croll - RAM

Book Review: How to Marry a Ghost