The Ghost Writer

 Book 18 of my 2022 Reading Challenge

The Ghost Writer

by John Harwood

3 stars

Published in 2004, The Ghost Writer is a mystery.  Gerard lives a solitary life with his mom who he knows is keeping secrets about her past.  He also has a longterm pen pal named Alice.  The book covers his travels to try and solve the mysteries of both women.

As I tried to sum up the book in a few sentences I rediscovered one of the problems I had reading it.  There were too many threads to untangle and too many plot points.  There was a book within a book plus the storylines of Gerard, Alice, his mom, the painting, the past characters, etc.

I had no idea what was going on.  At first I blamed myself because I was reading it very slowly so that could explain some confusion.  But then I realized if I was reading daily and just choosing other books over continuing to read this one, doesn't that say something about the book as well?

I rated it neutrally because I can't really make a coherent argument for or against the book and I don't want to try.  It wasn't for me but I acknowledge I may not be the audience and I may not have created the most optimal environment for reading it.