WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!
Heather Graham's latest book is a well-crafted tale of a murderous painting by a talented, but minor artist named Henry Sebastian Hubert.
During what was referred to as the Year Without a Summer in 1816, Hubert rented an ancient Swiss castle with a dark and sinister past. Among those joining him for a time were Lord Byron, Claire (Lord Byron's former mistress), John Polidori, and Mary Shelley. Lord Byron and company challenge Hubert to join them in their madness to create the penultimate ghost story. Hubert would paint his ghost story, while the others would craft their stories in words.
The painting that results from that challenge, Ghosts in the Mind, is a masterpiece study in perception and deception. The characters appear to be one thing, and then another, more sinister scene is perceived, leaving the viewer decidedly unsettled and fearful. The painting then begins its infamous and murderous history. Hubert is found dead in the castle, in front of his painting, an apparent suicide.
The painting passes to his widow in England, who has no love of it and orders it to be wrapped up and stored away where it lay quiet until her death. Upon her death the painting begins to change hands and mysterious deaths follow wherever it goes.
Modern day New Orleans: the painting is purchased by a very wealthy widow. Almost as soon as it arrives, nearly an entire family is butchered with no sign of the killers left behind. Private Detective Michael Quinn is called in by his former partner in the New Orleans Police Department to assist him with this especially baffling case.
Before long, Quinn's girlfriend, Danni Cafferty, who owns a curio shop and is no stranger to the paranormal, begins to assist Quinn with the case, along with occasional help from a Voodoo priestess, a Roman Catholic priest, and Billie and Bo Ray, and, of course, their fiercely protective, perceptive, and loyal dog, Wolf.
As the body count rises, their investigations take them through the troubled and deadly history of the painting, to a modern day direct descendant of the artist, and even back to the castle itself to try to unravel the secrets of the painting and what really happened that summer in 1816.
Overall I really enjoyed the book. The author did a fine job of building suspense around the painting. I haven't decided whether it's good or bad in this case, but I was able to figure out part of the ending before the actual ending, with still a bit of a surprise waiting for me at the very end. Heather Graham fans should enjoy this latest body of work.
All opinions are my own; no compensation was received for this review.
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