The Ghost (Unabridged‪)‬

EXCELLENT PACING, VIVID CHARACTERS, COMBINED WITH A FEW AUTHOR BIASES

....After one has read only a few of Harris’s novels, one becomes rather quickly acquainted with his writing style: imaginative plotting, vivid characters, high suspense & excellent pacing...Having read all of Harris’ published novels, I have noticed that other biases/quirks come to the fore...”The Ghost” is no exception...

...In a novel which barely conceals the identity of its real-life subjects, former PM Tony Blair and his wife, Sherrie, Harris attempts to create an alternate reality to “explain” Blair’s actions during the Iraq War (and, in his novel, its terrorist-laden aftermath)...

....First, the pros: EXCELLENT atmosphere (nothing creepier, or more likely to induce suspense, than a playground of the rich and famous—which is deserted— a “ghost,” as it were, of its famous, summertime alter ego). The Martha’s Vineyard that the protagonist visits is hiding itself in the dead of winter...The “atmospherics” are excellent (the “gray, dull skies,” and “leafless, ugly, scrub oak trees”)...A famous politician, almost in hiding...a hazy world of suspicion & foreboding...a body...and pieces of a puzzle that don’t quite seem to “fit,” to the ghost writer—who has been called in at the last moment, to write the politician’s memoirs, replacing the man whose death remains shrouded in mystery...

...The plot is good; suspense, uniformly consistent...Characters are well-sketched and interesting...Though the tale sometimes wanders perilously close to satire, in general, it is a tale that will hold the reader’s attention—and begs for closure...

....The cons are both particular to this book, and yet, particular to all of Harris’ novels....Unfortunately, like far too many male suspense writers, Harris is poor at drawing female characters. His “women” always fall into two categories: eye candy, and ready love interests for his protagonist , or, over-the-hill (for Harris, this means any woman over 40) figures who exist for the sole purpose of derision by his protagonist...

....The rather silly duality of female characters wouldn’t be quite so bad (or so noticeable), were it not for the fact that his protagonists are always between 40-50...the “love interest” always between 20-30....By pairing the protagonist with “daughter figures,” female readers, at least, are left with the impression of a very shallow protagonist (and reinforcement of the ridiculous male fantasy that, whereas a female’s desirability is extremely “time dated,” their own is limitless)...I’m fairly certain that other younger women, like myself, are left snickering in amazement at the conceit (and unreality) of such “assumptions.” Just ONCE, I would love to read a Harris novel wherein the protagonist falls for a woman my mothers age (in other words: his OWN)...Along with such stereotypical storylines, Harris also feels compelled to make nasty comments about older females (at one point
having his protagonist idly assuming that one woman—who was “dangerously near a certain age,” would end up, “owning CATS”)...God, really?
Another time, after the protagonist (somewhat “against his will”) has sex with a woman near his own age, he cracks, “Old fiddles can still sometimes play good tunes”....Ugh.

.....Other biases reveal a very dark view of Western Intelligence Services....A common British fear about becoming “America’s Poodle”....and, concern over terrorists’ “human rights” (“rights,” which many of his readers, no doubt, will feel were forfeited at the time they decided to target civilians)....Although one can almost hear Harris reminding himself, “not to alienate” his readers, his moderate activism comes through in the narrative...

.....Although “The Ghost” isn’t the best Harris novel, it certainly is far from his worst....Personally, I’d place it just beneath his Rome/Cicero series & Fatherland....and above, “Officer” & “Fear Index”....A very enjoyable read....