The Ghost Writer

I would probably give this book 3.5 stars. Gerard has always had questions about his mother's life before he was born, but she always keeps everything cloaked in mystery. After her death, he is determined to learn the truth and travels from Australia to England. The novel has a great Victorian ghost story feel to it, and I often had cold prickles running up the back of my spine.

The book has a lot in common with The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morten. It seems rather odd how many parallels can be drawn between the two stories, and it makes me wonder if Morten got some of her ideas from reading this lesser known book. It's definitely worth reading, but I will warn you of a few parts that made me feel uncomfortable, but the language was clean.(

Be prepared to leave the night light on, because this is one of those rare books that will haunt your dreams.

Gerard Freeman is a timid, antisocial librarian who lives with his mother Phyllis--a seemingly cold, strange and secretive woman who appears tormented by something "terrible" that happened in her past. In Gerard's mind only two things are alive: his mysterious pen pal Alice, with whom he has been exchanging letters for many years, and a story he found hidden in his mother's drawer years ago written by his great-grandmother Viola. He's always been curious by his mother's childhood, but Phyllis never talks about it. In fact, the mere mention of it fills her with an inward terror, not so much for herself as for her son. In spite of Phyllis' protests, Gerard decides to travel to England to investigate her past and meet his beautiful Alice, who is confined to a wheelchair. As he discovers more of Viola's stories, a sinister pattern begins to form. But what connects the stories together? Where does his beautiful pen pal Alice fit into all this, and why does she always come up with an excuse to delay their meeting? What, if any, was his mother's crime? All these questions and more are answered in a hair-raising conclusion that will keep readers glued to the book until the last page.

The author has an exquisite, traditional style that is highly reminiscent of 19th century ghost stories. Harwood has done a brilliant job in creating a complex, intricate plot of "stories within stories," and achieving a chilling, macabre atmosphere all throughout the novel. There's no gore; the horror is suggested, making it all the more powerful and ghoulish to the human mind. There's also an eerie quality of unreality to the story, making the reader wonder what is real and what is dream. Because of this quality, it is important to read the story carefully, especially towards the ending, in order not to be confused. That said, this is one of those books that many people, including this reviewer, will want to read a second time just for the pure pleasure of it.

The Ghost Writer is an addictive, totally absorbing read. Fans of ghost stories will relish this one. So will anyone who enjoys a beautifully written, mesmerizing novel with lots of suspense and heavy atmosphere.

John Harwood's 'the Ghost Writer' appealed to me with a brief blurb on a used book website. I, therefore, ordered it and through an oversight, waited close to two months for it to arrive. By the time it came, I was already into Robinson Crusoe, and too hooked to put that down. So 'Ghost' became my next read. After having finished the book I can say, in all honesty...it was worth the wait.

Gerard Freeman sneaks a peek into a usually locked drawer in his mother's room as a young boy, and sets off a chain of events that he never anticipated. From a hidden photo and pages of manuscripts, to his mother's insistance that he never, ever snoop in her things again, and her claims that the information he found is useless and insignificant, Gerard becomes embroiled in family secrets, long-unclaimed inheritances, and a frightfully good tale of betrayal and murder.

Gerard's 'saving grace' is his on-going correspondance with a young paraplegic girl, Alice, to whom he devotes all his spare time and affections, forming a long-distance (and only on paper) love affair that goes on for more than a decade.

When Gerard tries to track down the truth behind his mother's story, he finds far more than he ever bargained for, and far less than he believed to be true.....

To give away any more of this wonderful tale is to spoil a wonderful read by a talented voice in ghost stories.

Highly recommended to anyone who loves a good, gloomy, dark tale.

Gerald Freeman has been lonely much of his life, growing up in Australia with distant parents, his only comfort a pen pal he corresponds with from the age of thirteen, Alice Jessell. Alice, who lives in London, informs Gerard early on that they cannot ever meet; she was crippled in an auto accident that also killed her parents. Alice wants Gerard always to think of her as whole, eventually signing her letters "your invisible lover". Gerard pours his heart out to Alice, his dreams and disappointments, virtually friendless but for her.

Gerard's once-close relationship with his mother is shattered when she catches him searching through the locked drawer of her dressing table, where he discovers a manuscript, written by the mysterious V.H., and a photograph of a beautiful woman. Thereafter, the boy rightly assumes that he is living in a house of secrets, his mother never acknowledging life before Australia and the birth of her son. Clearly the woman is tormented, at times unhinged by inexplicable events. Somehow the years pass. Gerard becomes a librarian, caring for his now-widowed mother until her death, often musing over the photograph and manuscript that are nowhere to be found.

Later, in London, Gerard comes across two more manuscripts penned by his maternal grandmother, Viola Hatherly, Victorian ghost stories that capture his imagination, drawing him into the author's world, where reason and superstition coexist. Each story reveals another piece of an emerging picture, suspicions forming in his mind about his mother's hidden past. Gerard's days are unbearably banal, his persona trapped in Victoriana; but it is necessary to tolerate the young man's lack of assertiveness to get to the meat of The Ghost Writer, Viola Hatherly's unnerving tales, "Serafina", "The Gift of Flight" and "The Revenant", with hints of Henry James' Turn of the Screw. The result is a chilling foray into the shadowy crevices of superstition, betrayal and assorted bedevilments of the afterlife.

The reader's challenge is to suspend belief and trust Harwood to carry him through an unsettling journey, ever more bizarre as Gerard moves through parallel worlds, his own mundane, almost pitiful existence and the eerie tales of gothic horrors that send a shiver up the spine like a bad dream from which you cannot wake. Gerard is trapped between past and present, fantasy and truth, clinging to sanity while his imagination spins out of control. The only voice of reason is Alice, who faithfully supports Gerard, urging him on in his quest for truth, charging him with a sense of mission. What he finds turns reality into nightmare as vivid as any Dickensian tragedy, specter-laden and crackling with evil intentions.

Harwood's clever novel has just enough plausibility to awaken atavistic memory and irrational fear, with an ample supply of villains, cads and damsels in distress, all playing out their dramas, love spurned and unrequited, betrayed and scorned. Impossible to put down until the last page is turned, with a sigh of relief. Luan Gaines/2005.

This story reeled me right in & I felt Gerard's pain & confusion with his strange relationship with his mother. The "ghost stories" woven within this story (having been written by his great grandmother, we find) were all thrilling Victorian-era short stories, obviously based on one family, which turns out to be Gerard's family. How Gerard himself gets reeled in to the story of his mother's childhood, youth & subsequent estrangement from her family, is incredibly clever. Think of what dish is best served cold. And his "invisible penpal lover" of nearly 20 years, is she real? is she a ghost? Gerard begins to question his sanity near the end, knowing he's seeing what seems to be a ghost in the old family homestead, but not quite believing it. And the last killer twist, the part I think some reviewers are referring to as being difficult to understand, took me several run throughs to "get it". I felt like I was doing one of those "logic" puzzles ("If John & Jane like steak & eggs, and Julie always wears red sweaters, and Joey drives a blue truck...who was sitting next to Suzie on the settee?"). I had to carefully disect each step, flipping back to re-read & clarify some passages, and suddenly it fell into place.(The light was off in P's room because the bulb was burned out, not because it had been turned off, therefore anything else on that electric cord was also still on. And A. knew what the light being off should mean, so she thought she was safe. P.,unaware of any of this, happened to sleep elsewhere) And always, lurking under everything, are wisps & hints of ghosts that I found spine-tingling.

I really enjoyed this book, and can understand it not being someone's favorite if they don't like "ghost stories", but in no way, shape or form was this book "awful"! It was well-written, the characters, over the course of the story, are fully developed. The writer paints a true picture of Australia & England, mainly around London with enough attention to detail as to enhance, not deter, the story.

Comparisons between this novel and AS Byatt's Posession are inevitable, so let's get that out of the way. Byatt's past and present storylines are equally compelling, but her replications of period poetry are yawn-inducing; Harwood's replications of period ghost stories, combined with the narrator's mysterious family history, are the reason to read this novel. The present-day narrator (Gerard) is little more than a plot device to excavate the stories and his family's past, and his dull personality and poorly-handled storyline almost made me put the book down. But then I hit the first ghost story and couldn't stop reading. My recommendation is to think of the various layers of this novel like a chocolate cake with a thin raspberry filling; the raspberry filling is the present-day story, included just to hold together and emphasize the flavor of the rich, thick, dark layers of history.
The ghost stories embedded in the book are truly creepy for three reasons. First, the supernatural occurences in them are framed in such a way that you can never be sure if they're hallucinations or dreams of the characters. Second, as you accumulate several of the tales over the course of the book, you see where the similarities are between them, which starts to illuminate Gerard's family's past. Finally, many of the stories take place in locations similar to ones Gerard passes through, making it seem the writer has been watching him from her life a hundred years before. All of these elements build on each other until the suspense of the final hundred pages, which is wickedly intense.
Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed with the ending. Without giving anything away, I can tell you that while some elements of it were surprising, in the ghost story tradition it wasn't all that original. More importantly, it's wackily implausible. It's enjoyable enough while you're reading it, but don't try to apply any kind of realistic logic to figuring it out (even though the story seems to want that) or you'll end up frustrated.

There have been so many revivals of Victorian genre novels in recent years that it gets hard to keep track of them, or to separate the gold from the brass; this tribute to the great ghost fictions of the nineteenth century by the Australian first-time novelist John Harwood is certainly one of the best. Very cleverly Harwood decided to write a series of ghost tales set in the late 19th and early 20th centuries written in the style of the great ghost writers of the period--Sheridan le Fanu, M. R. James, Elizabeth Gaskell and Margaret Oliphant--and then built a frame narrative around it of a boy growing up in Australia trying to come to terms with his mother's haunted past. The denouement of the frame narrative is not hard to see coming, but part of the fun is the dread it awakens in you (ghost stories, after all, depend upon mounting horror and trepidation--surprise endings tend to ruin that effect). But the best things of all here are the excellent interpolated ghost stories, which are marvelously creepy and inexplicable (particularly one of the last ones, "The Pavilion"). They remind us again that ghost stories work best not as novels but as tales, wherein we can experience the pleasure of fear for intense brief periods.

What a wonderful book! It is even more enjoyable than I originally expected! This is one of those titles that I have picked up many times before finally purchasing it. In the past, the rather lackluster back description would cause me to set it back on the shelves, but after hemming and hawing over it for a few years, I am really glad to have read it! I am amazed at how little justice the back description gives the book. Not only does this have a solid plot, but the writing is more vivid and intense than a Victorian-inspired novel can sometimes be. What really sets this book apart is its unique structure - a main narrative interspersed with short stories, letters and diary entries. And the way the story unfolds the different structural elements don't in any way detract from the developing action. Nothing seems choppy or overly abrupt. The book tells a great story and is an impressive piece of writing from a technical and as well as an entertainment standpoint. I am looking forward to reading more by this talented author!

First off, it reminded me of The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel by Diane Setterfield (great read, highly recommended). It was an interesting story and defintely very psychologically creepy at some points. The stories within the story get a little confusing at times because there are parallels to the main plot and it's hard to distinguish the characters in your head. Gerard's mother is haunted by her mysterious past and eventually claims that one of the stories came true. A couple of the stories don't seem to go along with the plot but I guess they're included to keep you guessing as to which one is "the one" .

There are some obvious hints of things being not what they seem, one story becomes prominent and is linked to another story that becomes important to the ending, which hits you all at once with a lot of twists. I did have to reread the ending a few times to absorb some of the information and what was implied. Definitely a good story of you like this genre but it needs to be read through consistently without major time gaps or you'll have a hard time following along.

So like everyone else, I picked up this book because I enjoy a good victorian ghost story. And on that front this book surely didn't disappoint. I found myself on a 90 degree day sitting on my front porch with goosebumps, a response that books rarely elicit from me. Later that night when reading the descriptions of the ancient house with decaying curtins and threadbare carpets, the dark corners in my bedroom seemed much more menacing, and the whole world around me took on the feeling of decay.

So I ended up reading until much later than I should have and paid for it the next morning by being totally brain-dead at work.

When I got home I rushed to read the last chapter to see how it all ended...

To say I was somewhat disappointed would not be an overstatement, and the ending definitely confused me. It almost seems as if there was another chapter left off of the end where all the questions are answered and the plot lines are properly wrapped up. But all we readers are left with are 4 blank pages in the very back.

What happens to our main character? What does he do now? How does he live after surviving such an experience? What about all of those other loose ends and unanswered questions?

If you love a good ghost story and you thrill to the feeling of the hairs on your neck standing on end, then go for it. But don't expect all of your questions to be answered, and don't expect a 'normal' story book ending where everything is resoved and we all go home with our questions answered.

I still recommend the book on the great story that occupies 98% of it's pages. It's that last 2% that we don't get at the end that keeps this book from being a truly great volume. If you're sure that the last 2% of confusion won't taint the memory of the first 98%, then you won't be disappointed.

John Harwood's "The Ghost Writer" is literary fiction wrapped, deliciously, around a set of gothic horror stories. As a youth, the Australian narrator Gerard falls in love with a disabled British girl, Alice, he knows only through letters (and later, email). At the same time, he tries to unravel the mystery of his mother's past in England, through a series of horror stories he discovers his great-grandmother has written. The narrative of Gerard & Alice's developing love affair is interrupted by these stories, which appear as separate chapters in the novel.

Slowly, creepily, over time, the world of the horror stories and Gerard's own world start to overlap. Strange coincidences raise the reader's hackles as the stories, written a generation ago, seem to predict what happens in Gerard's own life. Eventually, Gerard goes to seek out Alice in England, with horrific consequences - an ending that is part Henry James' ghosts and part Jane Eyre's madwoman-in-the-attic.

It's all done with tremendous style; Harwood's ability to set an emotional tone far surpassed my expectations. However, as a narrator Gerard is a puzzle. Gerard narrates the novel himself, which makes for a very vivid but very confusing story.

You, the reader, will realize something is fishy about the stories and the girlfriend long, long before poor hapless Gerard. Why in the world doesn't he suspect something is wrong? You may lose patience with his naivete. You may also be confused by the end--You've figured out the whodunit, but Gerard still has it wrong. The ending is also the only point in which Harwood's fine style gets a little campy. Read this ending sloooooowwwly; Gerard's understanding will finally catch up to yours.

But will he survive it (cue the Twilight Zone theme here!)???

One of the most intricate and haunting ghost stories since Turn of the Screw, which it resembles in many ways, The Ghost Writer is captivating, filled with romance, Gothic twists, melodramatic surprises, vibrant imagery, and a series of rich and overlapping stories within stories. Complex and carefully constructed, it is also hugely entertaining, totally involving the reader in good, old-fashioned haunted happenings which turn out to be even eerier than they appear at first.

Young Gerard Hugh Freeman grows up in rural Mawson, Australia, a bleak place that is in marked contrast to Staplefield, the English country house where his mother grew up. Extremely private, she has revealed almost nothing else about her family background, and when Gerard, curious, opens her locked bureau and finds some personal papers, his angry mother refuses to speak about her past at all. Gerard, one the "legions of the lost: the swots, the cowards," eventually finds a pen pal in whom he confides everything, Alice Jessell, a paralyzed English girl whose parents are dead.

Continuing to investigate his mother, Gerard eventually discovers among her belongings an eerie ghost story written by Viola Hatherley, who may or may not be his grandmother, one of four stories she published in "The Chameleon," a short-lived British magazine. As Gerard grows up, he eventually uncovers the remaining three ghost stories by Viola, all as fascinating as the first, and as the reader discovers when these stories are inserted into the novel, the lives of Gerard and his family overlap with the plots of these stories. When he is in his thirties, and still pursing Alice, he finally visits the place in England that appears to be his mother's "Staplefield," and the details of his mother's life suddenly combine with Viola's four vibrant ghost stories to precipitate an intriguing conclusion.

Harwood is a fine writer, giving detailed physical descriptions and creating unforgettable images which reveal similarities among people, surroundings, and events in Viola's four ghost stories. The mystery and suspense begin on the first page, and increase geometrically as Gerard tries to solve his questions while creating even more mysteries. The parallels among the stories and with Gerard's life keep the reader on edge, trying to figure out who Gerard is, how he might fit into these stories, and even whether Gerard's life is a story manipulated by some great, unknown storyteller. Like The Turn of the Screw, this novel leaves the reader with questions--and like that brilliant novel, haunts the reader long after the fun has concluded. n Mary Whipple

Be prepared to leave the night light on, because this is one of those rare books that will haunt your dreams.

Gerard Freeman is a timid, antisocial librarian who lives with his mother Phyllis--a seemingly cold, strange and secretive woman who appears tormented by something "terrible" that happened in her past.

In Gerard's mind, only two things are alive: his mysterious pen pal Alice, with whom he has been exchanging letters for many years, and a story he found hidden in his mother's drawer years ago written by his great-grandmother Viola.

Gerald has always been curious by his mother's childhood, but Phyllis never talks about it. In fact, the mere mention of it fills her with an inward terror, not so much for herself as for her son. In spite of Phyllis' protests, Gerard decides to travel to England to investigate her past and meet his beautiful Alice, who is confined to a wheelchair. As he discovers more of great-grandmother Viola's stories, a sinister pattern begins to form.

But what connects the stories together? Where does his beautiful pen pal Alice fit into all this, and why does she always come up with an excuse to delay their meeting? What, if any, was his mother's crime? All these questions and more are answered in a hair-raising conclusion that will keep readers glued to the book until the last page.

The author has an exquisite, traditional style that is highly reminiscent of 19th century ghost stories. Harwood has done a brilliant job in creating a complex, intricate plot of "stories within stories," and achieving a chilling, macabre atmosphere all throughout the novel. There's no gore; the horror is suggested, making it all the more powerful and ghoulish to the human mind.

There's also an eerie quality of unreality to the story, making the reader wonder what is real and what is dream. Because of this quality, it is important to read the story carefully, especially towards the end, in order not to be confused. That said this is one of those books that many people, including this reviewer, will want to read a second time just for the pure pleasure of it.

Armchair Interviews says: The Ghost Writer is an addictive, totally absorbing read. Fans of ghost stories will relish this one. So will anyone who enjoys a beautifully written, mesmerizing novel with lots of suspense and heavy atmosphere.

John Harwood's spectral tale "The Ghost Writer" involves family secrets and a mysterious penpal. Gerard Freemont crept into his mother's bedroom one afternoon when he was about 10-years-old. He finds a picture of a woman and a book of short stories. His mother is enraged when she catches Gerard. It is years later before he returns to the room to try to find the book and the picture again. He eventually finds the books and realizes that one of the short stories was written by his great-grandmother. A very curious thing to hide, Gerard remains puzzled for years.

Later on, when he is about 13-years-old, Gerard gets a penpal. Her name is Alice Jessell and she is confined to a wheelchair. They become best friends, despite Gerard's mother's objections. Over the years, Gerard and Alice grow quite attached to each other, but Alice refuses to meet Gerard.

Interject a few short stories written by Gerard's great-grandmother and a heap-load of family secrets and you have The Ghost Writer.

This book is so hard to summarize. Its format is like none I have ever seen. Harwood's novel is narrated by the main character, Gerard, and interspersed throughout the novel are short stories, emails, and a diary. It is a fascinating read and Harwood is exceptional at what he does. I could not put this book down. It was completely mesmerizing. I highly recommend it if you love a good ghost story.

Wow! Combine the fictional mansions of Northanger Abbey and Wuthering Heights, add in some spine-tingling, authentically spooky (as in that ghost isn't really just a sheet) tales resembling some of the best episodes of "The Ray Bradbury Theater," and what do you get? THE GHOST WRITER -- that's what! I haven't been this creeped out since watching SATURDAY NIGHTMARES on the USA Network in the 80s! I was a child back then, and as an adult, I thought I'd never recapture the intense eeriness I felt when curled up watching those old movies on USA.

Many reviewers have done superb jobs of recounting the plot of this novel and conveying just how original and horrific Harwood's "stories within the story" are. I agree! I had long ago given up on reading ghost stories that weren't utterly corny, as there just aren't many modern day Edgar Allan Poes out there. I'm not satisfied with some dime-store author being touted as the next Stephen King. I was looking for a truly scary novel NOT found in the horror section. My friends, this is it! This is a novel for both intellectuals and for those just looking to be scared for the thrill of it, a novel that parodies the Victorian gothic while remaining unique and original. Publishers Weekly says it best: "Harwood's debut combines the kind of suspense that keeps readers up at night with a literary voice that allows them to respect themselves in the morning." I couldn't agree more! This is the kind of book that leaves me wondering if I'll ever again read such a mesmerizing work. Mr. Harwood, if you hear me, please, oh please, write more!!! (By the way, I suggest checking out Sarah Blake's GRANGE HOUSE -- also written in the style of a Victorian novel -- and Lisa Carey's IN THE COUNRY OF THE YOUNG if you're looking for other genuinely spooky reads not found in the horror section).

I'd actually rate this 3.5 stars

Gerard Freeman lives in a dull and typical suburban town on Australian's southern coast, not far from the `dead heart' desert. His mother is extremely overprotective, his father rather distant and absent. At ten years of age Gerard's favorite time spent with his mother is when she tells him tales of her childhood growing up in the English countryside at her family home of Staplefield. One day while snooping through is mother's possessions Gerard came upon a photograph of a beautiful woman. When his mother finds him she goes into a rage, beating Gerard and punishing him. It is not until things are patched over between them that Gerard realizes she never speaks of Staplefield again. Lonely and hungry for friendship Gerard begins a pen pal correspondence with a young girl named Alice, who lives in England. She has been in a terrible auto accident and is confined to a wheelchair. Over many years they form a written relationship that evolves into love. After his parents death Gerard decides to go to England to finally meet Alice and perhaps find the Staplefield home of his mother's family. Is there some strange connection between Alice and his mother? What was it his mother had been so afraid of? And what secrets is Alice keeping?

This book should have garnered 5 stars. It has so many elements of the kind of ghost story I enjoy. There is a slightly deranged mother, a mysterious relative, a haunted house, and a very Gothic tone to the story. There were smaller stories within the story, absolutely creepy ghost stories that added to the overall tone of the book. So what happened? The ending happened, an ending that I read two or three times over and am still not sure I understand everything that happened; up until that point the tension and sense of foreboding was palpable; the ending was a complete let down.

I would definitely read another book by Mr. Harwood, I think he has a real flair for creating dark, brooding stories he just needs to work on his endings and tying all the loose threads more tightly together.

Fans of Victorian and Edwardian ghost stories will probably enjoy this most, with its interweaving of carefully crafted homage pieces and a contemporary literary-mystery plot. There's a lot to be said for this kind of "writerly" novel: it's a wonderful opportunity to explore literary-theoretical musings while using an engaging mystery to drive the story; and plots in which the past resonates powerfully in the present are always fun. The problem is that A. S. Byatt aced this particular sub-genre, probably for all time, with her Booker-winning "Possession" (1990), and it's still so far ahead of anything else in the game that newcomers are invariably found wanting, even if they aren't courting comparison (as I'm sure Harwood isn't here). I quite enjoyed "The Ghost Writer" but, for me, it wasn't quite daring enough. The author clearly knows his sources, but he doesn't do anything dazzling with them. He throws in a few references to Henry James but then feels the need to explain them, presumably for the benefit of the less widely read. Moreover, he refuses to explore much of the theoretical territory his metafictional narrative must necessarily cross: the crisis of the subject; the relationship between reader, writer and text; the faith we put in written records, even fictional ones. Nor did I find the novel sufficiently plot-driven to sustain interest merely as a thriller. Tension builds, but the short stories which end up being central sometimes feel, in the reading, irritatingly tangential. You get the sense that it took a very long time to "build" this book; that it was made like a carefully crafted object, held up and considered from different angles, refined, worried over, and extensively revised. I say that because it's more pleasing in retrospect when you can see it in its totality; when the mystery is solved and you see the seemingly complex plot in its devilish simplicity. But as a story which unfolds in time, as stories must, it isn't quite so compelling. You get the impression that information is being wilfully withheld - it is of course, as it must be in every story of suspense, but the trick is to disguise the process. Here, I just felt I was being toyed with. Ultimately, though, these are minor quibbles. The novel works. It really comes to life eighty pages from the end, and that ending, when it comes, is powerful, vivid and magnificently dark. When you put the book down and look back on what you've read, you see that the plot and the passions which drive the characters are really quite macabre and extraordinary. The effect is that "The Ghost Writer" is a novel you might enjoy looking back on more than reading. It'll certainly have you looking forward: this is a first novel, and the dark intelligence behind it bodes well for Harwood's future work.

THE GHOST WRITER is probably one of the creepiest, most thought-provoking books I've ever read. The story centers around Gerard Freeman, an Australian librarian who lives with his mother -- a clingy, obsessive woman afraid above all that Gerard will leave her. His only real friend is a pen-friend, Alice Jessell, an English woman with an injury which confines her to a wheelchair. Though the two have never met, they have been corresponding since they were 13 and eventually fall in love.

Gerard is intensely curious about his mother's past in England at a country manor called Staplefield, where she lived with her grandmother Viola, who raised her. Gerard finds a photo of a strange woman and a Victorian ghost story written by V.H., who turns out to be Viola.

Gerard eventually makes his way to England, where he begins to unravel his mother's past, meanwhile discovering more ghost stories written by his great-grandmother which oddly seem to intertwine with the lives of her descedants.

John Harwood does a masterful job creating suspense in the manner of Henry James' THE TURN OF THE SCREW, to which he alludes in the name of Gerard's penfriend -- "Where, my pet, is Miss Jessel?" Viola's Victorian ghost stories are interwoven with the plot in a rather impressive plot construction; it would have been all too easy in the hands of a less-gifted writer, for the plot to go astray when the ghost stories "interrupt" the action of the novel. As it is, they hardly seem like interruptions, and indeed, they are so good that they might stand on their own. "The Gift of Flight" was terrifying and reminded me a Twilight Zone episode I once saw called "The Living Doll." You've probably seen it... "My name is Talky Tina... and I'm going to kill you." *Shivers*

This isn't Stephen King. This is much, much better. If you liked the Victorian creepiness of THE TURN OF THE SCREW, GREAT EXPECTATIONS (also alluded to in THE GHOST WRITER), or even A.S. Byatt's POSSESSION, which was both very different and very similar in subject matter (which I know makes no sense), then you'll enjoy this book. Gerard's mother's home in England reminded me of the house in THE OTHERS. Once you pick this book up, you may find it hard to put down. The ending is a bit confusing. I had to read it twice, and I still think what I think happened is very much open to interpretation. Then again, the best scary stories are like that.

John Harwood's "The Ghost Writer" tells the story of Gerard Freeman, a denizen of a small town in Australia, who, as a young boy, developed a precarious relationship with his overprotective mother. Years of delightful tales of his mother's family in England are brought to a halt when she discovers Gerard exploring in her room. Shortly thereafter, Gerard enters into a pen-friendship with a young girl in England, much to his mother's chagrin. Despite his best efforts, the adult Gerard finds his life a thwarted affair, as he can never achieve his two most desired goals: the truth about his mother, and the love of his pen-friend, Alice. But suddenly both dreams seem on the verge of coming true when he learns that his great-grandmother was a writer of ghost stories, and that one of those stories came true.

My wife read this book first, and insisted I do so. Looking over the reviews, I feel a small defense of Harwood's first novel is in order. Where he succeeds, he succeeds brilliantly. Harwood creates an atmosphere of tension that is palpable: Gerard's conflict with his mother, the truth his mother tries to hide, and the identity of his friend Alice are gnawing mysteries that keep the reader intrigued. The "reprints" of his great-grandmother's stories, rather than serving as jarring interruptions instead help to layer the tension further, as the reader is invited to figure out just which one of these stories is the key to the locked door of Gerard's past. (I can't help but suspect that Harwood had one or two of those stories in a drawer, and then hit on the idea of this novel.) Harwood presents a fascinatingly convoluted mystery novel with supernatural overtones.

However, if Harwood succeeds brilliantly on some points, his ending is a spectacular failure. In this regard, the common critique of the reviews posted here is a fair one: the ending is unsatisfying and confusing. Like others, I will not go into detail since that would spoil the whole book. Sufficed to say, when I put the book down, I ran my mind over the whole thing, and came up with some nagging questions, as well as some potential holes in the plot. The ending is too open, and feels as if Harwood just lost interest, and so wrote and ending and sent it off to be published without any re-write. Just a few pages of denouement would have made all the difference between the good first novel it is and the almost-classic it COULD have been.

Ultimately, read "The Ghost Writer" for Harwood's excellent talent using the English language, and his ability to conjure up tension through mood, character, and setting. Enjoy the mystery while it lasts, but be prepared for a-less-than-spectacular ending.

Gerard is a somewhat reclusive Australian who puts up with his mother's overprotective and somewhat secretive nature. He is lonely, devoid of friends, until he begins to exchange letters with a pen pal from England. The girl sounds lovely, except for the fact that an accident has left her paraplegic. She doesn't want to meet him, or even talk to him, until she is able to walk again, and so she insists on being his "invisible lover" for the time being. But something else is plaguing Gerard. From the moment he finds his grandmother's collection of gothic short stories, his life isn't the same. A mystery plagues him -- his mother is hiding something sinister. He travels to England to find answers... and he encounters things that are stranger than his dead grandmother's fiction.

This review contains some spoilers. If you haven't read this book and wish to give it a whirl, then I suggest you stop reading this review. The story showed a lot of promise in the beginning. John Harwood sets the perfect atmospheric tone for the entire novel. The short stories within the story are riveting and extremely chilling. You can tell where Harwood got his inspiration. Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, Oscar Wilde, Henry James... They're all there. In those stories you will find foreshadows and clues hidden in the spooky passages. As for the main plot, I found Gerard's unrequited love for Alice quite fascinating -- until it became unbelievable. Would you wait two decades for someone? Would you accept lame excuses for not meeting, not even to talk on the phone? Wouldn't you become suspicious at that point? Gerard does have doubts from time to time, and even makes a halfhearted attempt to find Alice, but he is easily persuaded to wait. This storyline almost ruined it for me. Almost. In the end, the story was ruined for me anyway. The second half of the novel dragged and the short stories became tedious. Description and atmosphere are important in this sort of book, but do we really need a six-page description of Gerry's mother's old English house? The ending confused me. Too many loose ends, too many fragments, too many I'll-leave-it-to-the-reader-to-figure-it-out copouts. Ambiguity is good in literary fiction, but too much ambiguity tells me that the author got lazy at the end and couldn't bring himself to tighten the story in a stronger way. The last chapter made no sense to me. I've read it quite a few times already, seeking answers, but I still don't get it. I have some theories, but I won't discuss them here. The Ghost Writer pays homage to Victorian novelists like Poe, Dickens and James, but it is also quite similar to modern-day authors like Diane Setterfield and Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Setterfield wrote The Thirteenth Tale, and as intricate as that story was, the author managed to wrap it up in a disarming but convincing way. Ditto with Ruiz Zafon and his own masterpieces, The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel's Game (although the latter had its own jumbled ending). I have picked up The Séance, and I hope Harwood has done a better job with that one. In a nutshell, this book is good, not great. The writing style is excellent, but the story needed better execution. Read it if you must, but beware of the confusing ending. That's all I can say.

This novel is written quite well. Harwood does a splendid job of building the narrative and pulls his readers into the story like a cold, monstrous hand slivers upon its unsuspecting victim in the dark. The story itself is not just a simple ghost story, but much more complex; it tends to creep up on the reader until one is spooked into finding eeriness in the most mundane of surroundings. The stories within the story so wonderfully juxtapose the primary narrative and build on the entire sensation. I was thoroughly "creeped out" by this novel, but I have to agree with other reviewers in saying the ending was a let down. In no way was it predictable as some have put it. The idea of the end itself was brilliant, but the writing lacked imagination. It seems that Harwood just rushed through the bit that the reader was looking most forward to. However, to give him credit, Harwood did such a great job with 98% of the story that even with the flimsy ending, one's own imagination can fill in the weak spots. If you like an intelligent spook and are looking for something fresh in the genre, pick this one up. You won't be disappointed but might have trouble sleeping for a while.

Gerard, the protagonist, has a secretive pen pal, a mother who will not discuss her past and a great-grandmother who wrote ghost stories....one of which apparently came true.

It was a little slow getting into this one but it ended with a bang.

This was Harwood's first novel. The second one The Seance was also very good.

Others are comparing John Harwood to Wilkie Collins, not a bad comparison.

4 STARS

If artist M.C. Escher wrote, he might have written The Ghost Writer by John Harwood, a wonderful mystery/ghost story that I read over the last few days. The book is evocative of old gothics - Wilke Collins with a smattering of Henry James - Turn of the Screw thrown in as well as references to James by the author.

The novel is a rich tapestry, layered, complicated and (my only quibble) just a bit too confusing, It's not a fast read, but is an absorbing one. The author is extremely good at building a compelling tale that twists and turns upon it self mirroring itself as it goes.

Iif you like "old fashioned" ghost stories - this is a fine gothic tale that I highly reccommend, though I wish his editor has pushed him a little bit more at the end. In keeping with the subtle way the tale was told the reader is left with a few too many questions and no hint to how to figure them out. It needed one damn line of explanation. (I went back and reread the last 30 pages three times but never found that one line.)

If not for the ending this superb contemporary ghost story would be worthy of five stars. I haven't read such a compelling, suspenseful, literary chiller in a very long while. As other reviewers have stated if this type of story (a sophisticated ghost story very much in the Victorian tradition), is your thing then you will certainly find this novel "un-put-downable". The mix between the narrative and the insertion of the haunting and connected "stories" is superbly crafted, rarely have I seen it done better. As many other reviewers have already stated, the ending was not up to par with the rest of this story. The author did not do this story justice by finishing his novel with such a hurried, confusing, let-down of and ending. If nothing else you should read this story just for "The Revenant" alone, that one will stay with you for years. 4.5 stars.

The Ghost Writer features stories within stories; it describes a young, lonely Australian boy named Gerard who grows up and attempts to uncover the mysteries of his past. His only friend is an equally lonely penpal, with whom he corresponds throughout his childhood.

I didn't care much for the protagonists story -- I felt certain I knew how it would end, and I wasn't much off -- but the final twist isn't necessarily the point of the story. Rather, I thoroughly enjoyed discovering Gerard's history along with him. In addition, Harwood includes a number of short ghost stories purportedly written by Gerard's grandmother. There was one I simply did not want to put down, and I would love to read a novel comprised entirely of those stories!

Harwood nails down the style of Victorian ghost stories perfectly. I very much recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good tale of things that go bump in the night, along with journeys of personal discovery.

Started: April 18, 2015
Finished: April 26, 2015

Rating: 8/10

I was looking for a gothic mystery...with some romance on the side. This is not exactly what I was bargaining for. Even though the mystery, and the goth and darkness was all there.
I never really connected with the main character, he seemed a flimsy (is that even a word) man to me. A man dominated by his mom until adulthood. Ew. And one who is completely controlled by a woman writing letters to him. It was not a book about love, it was one of unhealthy obsession.
And because it was a bit of a book within a book it was sometimes confusing. But I have to say I like Viola's ghost stories than the actual book.

The Ghost Writer (2004) tells the story of Gerard Freeman, a young Australian boy who loved listening to his mother's reminiscences about her childhood in an English country manor. One afternoon he discovers the key to her locked drawer and finds an old picture, and later a supernatural story he suspects was written by his grandmother, Viola. He tells his English penfriend, Alice, everything. Twenty years later he travels to London to try to unravel the story of his family's past and perhaps to finally meet Alice in person. Interspersed with Viola's supernatural tales, this impressive gothic suspense debut novel slowly builds the tension to the very last page.

[...]

One hot day in January, a little boy named Gerard goes snooping thru his mother's dresser drawers while she's snoozing. He finds a battered, stained book and a photograph of a beautiful woman with a mysterious smile. Then his mother wakes up. "She sprang, hitting and hitting and hitting me, screaming in time to the blows that fell wherever she could reach." Hold up ... give me a minute here ... OK. All right. I'm OK. I must admit, I got a little misty reading this as it reminded me of my own dear sweet mum.

Gerard is a lonely, isolated boy. His overprotective mother is fixated on her past in the Elysian pastures of England, far from the man-eating bugs and reptiles of Australia. His father is cold and distant and spends all his time in the garage playing with his trains. Until he dies. The only person Gerard has to talk to is his "invisible friend," Alice. Shortly after Gerard enters his teens, he receives an invitation in the mail to join a "penfriend" society. Despite his mother's misgivings, Gerard is paired up with Alice, a girl in Sussex, who was orphaned and put in a wheelchair by a car accident. Although Alice refuses to send Gerard any pictures of herself, he falls in love with her thru her letters.

Still nagging at him are the contents of that tantalizing drawer. He sneaks back for another look and this time begins to read the book with the strange rusty spots all over the cover. It's a collection of ghost stories, most likely written by Gerard's great grandmother, Viola. Could she be the woman in the picture?

As Gerard grows into adulthood, he becomes desperate for a face-to-face meeting with Alice, now his "invisible lover." After his mother dies, he travels to England to find Alice and dig further into the family history and Viola's stories. The secrets buried deeply by his mother get more sinister, and the strange fictions, written long before he was born, begin to parallel and intrude upon Gerard's reality.

John Harwood knows his traditions and carefully hits the bases: fogbanks, ouija boards, rustling in the attic, malevolent doll children, hypnotic portraits, vampiric suitors. He's so careful to honor the form of the old-fashioned English ghost story that he brings nothing new to it, other than an artyfarty obliqueness and a seriously dopey ending, neither of which it needs. In two or three long chapters, Gerard explores a spooky old empty (or is it?) mansion. Room. By. Room. Perhaps describing every stick of furniture and all the different wallpaper designs is Harwood's way of building up unbearable suspense. "I had a sudden horrible vision of some monstrous creature concealed, scrabbling loose in the dark." I'll spare your nerves: No monster jumps out at him, and it's about as suspenseful as reading the real estate listings.

This kind of ghost story has long since lost whatever power it might have once had to frighten. By now, it's mental comfort food to be enjoyed with a cup of cocoa and marshmallows by a cozy fireplace. Well, I don't have a fireplace. "The Ghost Writer" goes bump in the nite very quietly, very discreetly, so as not to disturb anyone's slumber. Shhhhhhhh....

There is much to recommend this book, but unfortunately, it only skirts with greatness. The story of a reclusive Australian librarian, drawn back to his family roots in England, The Ghost Writer begins as a brilliant creepy homage to Victorian Gothic. But the set-ups are prolonged past the credible. For those well honed to this kind of book, you're going to guess more than one or two of the twists. The author believes he's hidden his hand well, but in truth, the twists are too obvious. Worse than that, the ending drops into the presposterous. By the time you finish, you'll have your guesses confirmed, and yet you'll be irritated. Too much is left unexplained and far too much depends on coincidences. For isntance, can you really believe that penpals who have confessed their love for one another will wait another 22 years to meet, even though they've been in the same country on more than one occasion? Still, it's worth the ride, since Harwood writes well and keeps the pages turning. Just beware of the disappointment awaiting you.

Minor spoilers below:

I would have given this book 3 1/2 stars if I could have, it was a good read and I flew threw it right up until the ending. The fact that the story is sectioned into many smaller "mini-stories" makes it a bit choppy, but also kept things interesting as something new was always being introduced.

I won't say that the ending ruined the book for me, but it certainly put a damper on it. I read the last chapter three or four times and I'm still not certain that I understood what was really supposed to be going on. There isn't the satisfaction of figuring out "whodunnit" because by the last paragraph you're still scratching your head over whether the "guilty" party is really guilty or not. After that the story stops abruptly, with a lot of loose ends (in particular, the course of events that must have taken place over some 'missing' years in the storyline, and a somewhat random event at the very end). Maybe I wasn't reading carefully enough, but the more details I found, the more ambiguous the ending seemed to me. I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, but I would have liked one more chapter!

Warning - a character like Lt. Columbo doesn't show up at the end of this novel and tie up everything in a nice, neat package. You are left to piece together the puzzle on your own. Brainpower is required. The author, John Harwood, has given you all of the pieces of the puzzle and it's up to you to think it through.

It is understandable that this may frustrate some readers. The novel is close to 400 page and after that amount of effort, a claim to a satisfactory ending is not unreasonable.

However, the ambiguity is what make this novel unique. Personally, I don't think I've had so much fun with any book I've ever read. I participated in the discussion group about this novel on [...] and relished John Harwood's appearance on that site to discuss the book. I've recommended this book to friends and then enjoyed hours of discussion with them about what "I thought it was safe" meant, what was the meaning of "The Drowning Man" and what was in the drawer (maybe a sequel?).

This might not be the book for everyone. But if you enjoy open-ended puzzles (did you like "Myst"?), then this book might be for you.

First Sentence: I first saw the photograph on a hot January afternoon in my mother's bedroom.

Gerard Freeman grew up in Australia with an uninvolved father and an overbearing mother who had grown up in England but, other than stories about the house, won't talk about her family. Searching through his mother's dresser he does find a ghost story written by his great-grandmother, Viola, which hints of tragedy in his family.

In his loneliness, he gains a English pen pal, Alice with whom he becomes so connected it is his ambition to gain his degree in library science and go to England. There he uncovers more of Viola's stories and begins to believe his mother had left England having murdered her sister. As the stories parallel family history, Gerard is drawn further into the past to find the answers in the present.

This is another example of the book that starts so well but goes awry. I was completely drawn in at the beginning and the first ghost story made me wonder whether I was old enough to read this on my own. It wasn't horror, but it was wonderfully, satisfyingly creepy.

After that, the stories felt forced and a bit absurd, particularly one that is a bad take-off on the Chucky movies. Gerard was a character about whom I really found I didn't much care. You also knew, almost from the very beginning, one of the characters was not going to be what they seemed.

As the story progressed, I felt it so did in a very predictable manner to a very predictable almost ending. But when you did reach the end, . No, I didn't forget the rest of the sentence, but am indicating that there was no end to the story unless you count four blank pages and an author who decided it would be clever to leave it up to the reader's supposition.

Call me old-fashioned, but I ration like authors who actually write the endings to their books. I actually have the next book by Mr. Harwood on its way to me, and I shall read it, but I definitely hope for it being a vast improvement over this outing.

Not since "The Secret History" has a first novel impressed me as much as Mr. Harwood's. As an avid reader for whom time dedicated to reading is precious, I have little patience for authors and publishers who waste my time with poor storytelling. That is why I find these the store Reviews so valuable: they often help weed me out the unworthy.

The plot has already been desribed in some detail, so I would rather take a moment to opine on what I felt was the novel's weakest and strongest element.

The weakest would have to be the presence of Alice in the second half of the novel. Some may disagree, but I found puzzling Gerard's inability to catch on to the fact that there was something seriously wrong with the presence of Alice in his life by that point. Even after he arrives in London the second time he seems blissfully unaware that Alice is anything less than she says she is, but to the reader it is has become blatantly obvious. Perhaps it was just part of Gerard's nature, but I found it hard to believe he could that thick headed. Love is blind, but is it stupid? I will say, to Harwood's credit, that this defect does not drag down the climax of the novel as I feared it might.

The strongest element of this story, one which I have never seen before, is mixing original Victorian ghost stories (written by Harwood and "discovered" and "read" by Gerard) throughout the novel that eerily mirrors the events unfolding in Gerard's life. I cannot think of another novel that has employed such a device, and in Harwood's hands it works magnificently.

One final note, I know that some reviewers who felt puzzled or let down by the novel's last few pages. I can only that I did not have a problem understanding what was happening and why, despite the fact that the last few pages almost reads like a dream. Yes, the ending my feel a bit abrupt, but I felt at the end of the last setence the story had been told completely and as a reader I would have had no problem filling in the last few paragraphs myself. Perhaps Mr. Harwood realized this and decided so save himself the trouble. While I doubt Mr. Harwood's next novel will follow similar subject matter (a pity), I am looking forward to it in the same way as most of the other reviewers.

I bought "The Ghost Writer" after reading several glowing reviews in my local newspaper and online. I'm a sucker for gothic ghostie stories, and was hoping this would be worth the hardcover price.

AND IT WAS...almost. Actually, I've never had this kind of reaction to a book before. This is my first the store review, and I'm writing it because this book elicited enough of a passionate, if completely confused, reaction in me. So maybe that does make it worth the price.

From the first few pages, I absolutely could not put this book down. I abandoned chores, evening television and my signifcant other in pursuit of discovering the next plot revelation and how everything would tie together. Others have relayed the details of the plot, so I won't go into them here. But I found all the characters to be completely attention-worthy; at least in within the gothic genre (okay, this isn't "Atonement" or "Madame Bovary"). The "stories within the story", that is, the ghost stories written by Gerard's grandmother, Viola, are also quite wonderful. They are able to stand alone as compelling and enchanting short gothic stories.

I was turning pages as fast as I could.

And then I got to the last chapter. I read it once. Then twice. Then I went back and read the two previous chapters. I didn't get it. Sometimes, when you have been lucky enough to find a real page turner, you may be reading a little too fast and miss important stuff. That's what I assumed happened to me. I put the book down and went back to it the next day, rereading the last quarter. I was still baffled. I reread the last quarter again. What happened? What did those last few mumbled remarks by The Character In The Last Chapter mean? Did they indicate insanity? Were they revelations? If so, how were The Character In The Last Chapter's actions carried out in the past? How did The Character In The Last Chapter obtain The Important Item In The Attic? (List of more detailed, plot-revealing questions continues offline) So... I did some online research and discovered others had this same reaction. I felt a little better...sort of.

I would LOVE to go into more detail, but that would force me to basically make this review a whole bunch of evil SPOILERS. And that's just not fair. Let me just say that the ending leaves much to be desired (unless I've just suddenly suffered serious brain dysfunction and can no longer analyze plot like I used to). BUT...I suspect this would be a FANTASTIC book club book. Everybody would have their own theories, and there would be a lot of arguing and screaming and wailing, and isn't that what a good book club is all about?

Interesting read. Drawn-out story with a lot of information revealed in a sudden flood at the very end. Still not sure how I feel about the ending.. Suspension of disbelief wavers, but it poses some intriguing plot ideas and made me want to skim back through it again now that I knew what was really going on. Likeable narrator, well written, curious little book that was a fun light read.

This is definitely not the kind of book someone should choose to read alone in bed on a dark and stormy night! Harwood's writing style is captiviating, haunting, and word-paints gripping imagery of the Victorian era through an interwoven collection of ghost stories. My only criticism, in fact, is that there were many times when the interjected stories were actually more intriguing than the premise of a young man's unrequited love for a distant and mysterious pen pal. I'll look forward to reading more of his work.
Christina Hamlett
Author of Movie Girl

There are two big problems with this book: the beginning and the end. The middle bits, however, more than make up for the novel's other flaws.

Ghost Writer starts out very slow. For about 30-50 pages, there isn't much to capture your attention. But please, stick with it. I promise, it gets much better. Once the two main characters meet (if you can call their penpal relationship a "meeting"), the plot picks up and begins to move at one of those "I couldn't put it down" paces.

The high point of the book are the short stories within it. Besides being a terrific, innovative conceit, the stories are well-written, and the reader is thourougly convinced it is penned by another's hand--Harwood has no place in Violet's prose. A grand achievement for Harwood, and a testement to his skill.

I adored this book and was rapt until the final page. Which brings me to problem #2: I didn't get the ending. It's entirely possible the problem is me and I was just overcome with a case of The Stupids, but it was so abrupt, and a little confusing. I'm not entirely sure what happened. It was a little like watching a very tense and action-packed TV show or movie and having someone flip the TV off right at the climactic final moment. Hey! I was watching that!

Nevertheless, the book as a whole was worth the read, and Ghost Writer's finer points greatly overshadow its few weaker ones.

As other reviewers have noted, this is a book that requires some thought on the reader's part. Fans of the "Murder She Wrote" school of mysteries will probably not enjoy it. The answers at the end are there but they don't just jump out at you. There is no Sherlock Holmes to step forward to explain it to the reader. I had to read the last chapter twice and then think about it before I worked out the solution.

Part mystery, part ghost story, this novel has a wonderful gothic atmosphere, very Victorian even though it is set in the 1960's. The mystery is interwoven with ghost stories that seem to parallel or predict Gerard's life, and the line begins to blur between the ghost stories and the story line of the novel. There are literary allusions to classic ghost stories such as "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James.

Yes, the reader suspects early on that something is not quite right about penpal Alice. Yes, at times Gerard seems a little dim. These hints make the mystery all the more tantalizing. All in all, a very satisfying read.

In his debut novel, John Harwood creates an eerily psychological horror story with a nod (and a wave) to Victorian literature. As the novel begins in Australia, young Gerard discovers hidden away in his mother's possessions a strange photograph and a book. His mother swoops down on him with fury, snatching the belongings from him and hiding them away where Gerard cannot find them, refusing to tell him of her past. Soon thereafter, he begins a secret correspondence with a crippled English girl named Alice, and her letters rescue him emotionally from the bleak surroundings in his Australian home. As he matures, he falls in love with Alice, who won't let him see her for fear he'll feel sorry for her. As he learns that the book his mother has hidden away contained a ghost story written by his grandmother Viola, which Harwood presents in full, Gerard confides even more deeply in Alice. Viola's lengthy - and thoroughly creepy - stories seem like separate entities until Gerard discovers some disturbing connections. Upon his mother's death, he sets out to England to finally meet up with his almost-healed Alice and to settle family matters. What he doesn't count on, however, is that nothing, not even his own senses, can be trusted. Even if the reader solves much of the mystery before it is revealed, the ending has all the force it should, thanks to Harwood's highly visual description and talent with suspense.
Harwood does a marvelous job of embedding the mannered ghost stories within Gerard's story, and the stories-within-a-story works exceptionally well in his hands. The tales are so throat-grabbing by themselves that I forgot at times that they were but segments of the whole. The effect is truly eerie as details from them begin to surface in Gerard's plot. Because the author's debt to Henry James' THE TURN OF THE SCREW is obvious well before he makes reference to it, I wished he had just let the style and the allusions to speak for themselves instead of pointing them out. His acknowledgment of Dickens' GREAT EXPECTATIONS is even less successful. I overlooked these lapses simply because I could not willingly put this novel aside.
This is not Stephen King-type horror but something more elegant and literary. This moody, stylish debut will capture your imagination for hours at a time. Especially if you like creepiness, you'll love this tale of multiple hauntings and mystery.

Somewhat abrupt ending notwithstanding, "The Ghost Writer" succeeds beautifully at doing what a ghost story should: lodging itself under your skin in a way that defies rationality. The cumulative effect of Harwood's language, imagery, and pacing are such that I found my heart pounding with fright at places where nothing overtly frightening was even happening (e.g., during one character's first tour of an old uninhabited house).

The interspersing of Viola's tales of the unexpected was masterful. They served to illuminate not only the main mystery, but also the inner life and relationships of all the characters. In addition, the layering of the stories has a certain disorienting, hypnotic effect at times--as if one is looking into mirrors that reflect each other into infinity. At moments I actually had to stop and remind myself, "Wait...is this character 'real' or one of Viola's inventions?" Eerie.

I may go back and reread this soon--which is something I very rarely do. It's elegant, complex, and disquieting. I recommend it highly--though not before bedtime!

Being a fan of all things Gothic, novels in particular, I am always on the lookout for the next Rebecca. Boy, was I in for a treat. This book was absolutely unputdownable and it took almost all my spare time in the last two days to read, it was so engrossing. I have to agree with most reviewers that, yes, the ghost stories are phenomenal and leave you wishing for more (hurry up, Mr. Harwood) but I don't think the ending was all that dissapointing. Most knots are tied and the last twenty pages or so hint at the solution to the Alice mystery. Yes, one does wish for an epilogue, but on the whole it was a reasonably satisfying end and not as bad as I expected after reading some reviews. If you liked this, try The Shadow of the Wind by my fellow countryman Carlos Ruiz Zafon. There are some parallels in the stories. If you have any other suggestion, let me know.

but a well written tale that transcends the horror/suspense genre. The Ghost Writer is simply a great read. There has been some criticism that the end is hard to understand and I agree but after turning the last page and realizing there wasn't going to be an epilogue, where everything would be neatly tied up, the author made me a fan for life. I greatly enjoyed reading this novel and even more so had fun thinking back through the book in trying to fit everything together. I would highly recommend picking up this book for you and a friend then hashing everything out with them a few days later over coffee.

difficult to follow with all of the stories going on. Hard to remember what happened in the beginning by the time you get to the end. If you do read i would recommend finishing the book in a few sittings.

I have always been fond of ghost stories and movies. I have seen or read any such work that fell in my hands. These works have been so many that - I think - I have formed a taste concerning this particular genre. This novel is one of the most absorbing reads. I could have finished reading it in one night, if not for my tired eyes. It certainly is a mature work, written by an above the ordinary excellent and - though his debut- a seemingly experienced writer. In The Ghost Writer, every event and twist seems to go as it is supposed to. Throughout the book, every desire in me for every sensation a ghost story would arouse, was satisfied. Yet, the story seems to regenerate itself, with the climaxes carefully placed in the right places. Also, as I mentioned in the title, this novel has an air of the classics, concerning style and sophistication. Definitely a great read. Prepare to be amused, and scared!

A very well-crafted gothic tale, extremely well-paced and impossible to put down. I enjoyed the layering of stories-within-stories, although this sometimes led to a confusion of characters. Very compelling writing style, would like to read more by this author.

After starting this book, I found myself abandoning the tv, laundry, everything just to read a few more pages. I too, was confused at the ending though. I had to go back and reread the last 2 chapters a few times. It ends sort of abruptly but still, I would recommend this book for anyone who likes to look over their shoulder for the remainder of the night after finishing this. Also, the short stories written by Viola within the book are awesome as well.

This is an excellent scary ghost story. It truly took me to places that I haven't been since the good old Steven King days. I honestly didn't think that this kind of story was being written any longer. It is a frightening as any I have read, and made noises in the night make my heart stop. I, too, wished for a little more punch at the end, but that criticism aside, I think this is a terrific book.

At first The Ghost Writer seemed interesting but as the story went on (and on and on...) it became more of a chore to read than a delight. The cop-out ending doesn't make reading it worthwhile. The stories-within-the-story were too long, heavy and cumbersome. I tried this book because a reviewer of The Thirteeth Tale by Diane Setterfield suggested it as "similar". Not so, however! I would recommend checking this out of a library and not buying it, if you really want to give it a whirl..... but why bother when there are so many better books out there???

I found this book absolutely un-put-downable. The author's use of language is first class and his weaving together of several strands to a spine-chilling conclusion seamless. I rated this book as far and away superior to Byatt's Possession (to which it was unfavouably compared by another critic). I hope that Harwood will produce many more such masterpieces.

Complete and utter chaos - it went from the main story to pages upon pages of different stories within. It really messed with my head and in the end I was able to put together most of the puzzleSSSSS but come on - a corpse that uses a computer? Did I miss something? I only know one thing, next time I won't be so quick to grab a ghost story that has good reviews and cool cover.

I couldn't wait to finish it. Not because it was so "great" but because it was agonizing. So I pick up the next book on my pile thinking -- Thank God I can go on to the next and guess what?!!! The Seance by **you guessed it** John Harwood. I could only laugh at my luck and shut down the light for the night.

I just loved this bizarre story. What a unique mystery. Yes, it was somewhat confusing but I read to enjoy the ride and do my best to figure out the conclusion. His writing I felt was excellent, I could trully picture every scene in my mind so clearly. I keep checking to see if he has written more. Where are you John Harwood?