Ghostwalk: don't look behind you!

I know, I know, this is the wrong month for ghost stories, but this is the book selected by the teacher's book club for February. To appease those who insist on love stories for Valentine's Day, this is also a love story -- but not your ordinary kind. Writer Lydia Brooke agrees to complete the unfinished book after her ex-lover's mother dies unexpectedly. She moves into his mother Elizabeth's house and is soon enmeshed in research on the life and career of Sir Isaac Newton, the subject of the unfinished book. Sure enough, Lydia and the married Cameron soon resume their affair, but they both have many secrets. Cameron, a scientist who develops pharmaceuticals in a lab where they use rats for their trial experiments, is always in danger from an animal rights terrorist group -- but he doesn't tell Lydia about the true purpose of the drugs he's developing, nor of his involvement with a world-wide group pulling the strings. Lydia, conducting research on Trinity at Cambridge University in the 17th century, doesn't share information about the mysterious lights that appear in his mother's house, the odd disappearances, the man in a red cape she keeps seeing just out of the corner of her eye, nor the woman who approaches her to channel the spirits of contemporaries of Newton who died in unexplained ways.
The story takes meandering paths and leads Lydia into dangers she can neither foresee nor avoid. This is a book full of historical facts and scientific explanations -- but always with that surreal twist. Do you believe? This books makes it seem so possible that by the end you're not sure which explanation to believe -- the scientific or the supernatural.
I liked it okay, but it wasn't a totally-awesome thriller.

I'll give it three stars out of four.

Favorite Book of 2008 -- what's yours?

Mrs. Duell challenged all the RB teachers to identify their favorite book that they read this past year (don't you just love all the end-of-the-year Best-Of lists?) Believe it or not, I have kept track of all the books I've read this year (and the movies and plays I've seen -- what a nerd, right?) But that list is at home. Nevertheless, it took me only a moment to think of my favorite. The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield, was at the very top of a long list of great books that I met this past year. It had suspense, drama, well-developed interesting characters, humor, pathos, and a satisfying ending. It was very well written, which captured my admiration -- it's fun to observe how an author structured a book, and to be still surprised by wonderful turns of phrase, delightful word choices, gorgeous passages... So - what it's about - - - Margaret Lea works at her father's rare book shop and hides the pain of her knowledge that her conjoined twin sister died on the day they were born, in the very operation that saved Margaret's life. After she wrote a biography that reveals her understanding of sibling (and specifically twin) relationships, she was contacted by reclusive author Vida Winter to write her biography. Miss Winter has spent a lifetime telling various biographers varying fantastic stories - but she vows that THIS time she'll tell the truth. Margaret combines interviews of Miss Winter with independent investigations. Vida tells about the once-proud Angelfield family from Yorkshire, who lived in an estate now fallen to ruins. There was eccentric and seductive Isabelle, her sadistic brother Charlie, and Isabella’s oddly disturbing twin daughters Adeline and Emmeline. A governess, a doctor, a few devoted servants, an abandoned baby, and a streak of madness and murder run through Angelfield. What do these characters have to do with Vida Winter? Finding out will keep you pasted to the pages of this wonderful novel. Grab it for a cold winter's day -- or couple of days. I guarantee you won't be able to put it down.

4 out of 4 stars