The Perfect Ghost by Linda Barnes

I begin work today on The Perfect Ghost by an author named Linda Barnes. I have yet to read any books by her but from what I've researched, she's no newbie to the thriller & mystery genre. Those are my favorite words when deciding what books to read. Barnes is best known for her Carlotta Carlyle character. Her work is often compared to Sue Grafton and Sara Paretsky. I've heard of both of those authors but I haven't read anything from them either. I'm starting to feel there's a lot of authors that I haven't discovered yet and I'm trying to change that with my one book a day challenge.

Synopsis: Mousy and shy to the point of agoraphobic, Em Moore is the writing half of a celebrity biography team. Her charismatic partner, Teddy, does the interviewing and the public schmoozing. But Em’s dependence on Teddy runs deeper than just the job—Teddy is her bridge to the world and the main source of love in her life. So when Teddy dies in a car accident, Em is devastated, alone in a world she doesn’t understand. The only way she can honor his memory and cope with his loss is to finish the interviews for their current book—an “autobiography” of renowned and reclusive film director Garrett Malcolm.


Ensconced in a small cottage near Malcolm’s Cape Cod home, Em slowly builds the courage to interview Malcolm the way Teddy would have. She finds Malcolm at once friendlier, more intimidating, and much sexier than she had imagined. But Em soon starts hearing whispers of skeletons in the Malcolm family closet. And then the police begin looking into the accident that killed Teddy, and Em’s control on her life—tenuous at best—is threatened.