Review of The Perfect Ghost by Linda Barnes

This being the first novel I've read by Linda Barnes makes me anxious to see what else I have missed by this author. The novel is told primarily from the main character Em Moore's point of view. She is faced with going forward with the biography she and her recently deceased partner Teddy Blake are writing. The only problem is that Em is extremely afraid of leaving her home. Linda Barnes ability to capture her fear in the beginning of the book had me hooked and interested in finding out more about this Em Moore.

After Teddy's death by car accident, Em is completely shut off from any source of life. Without any real friends or love interests (besides Teddy), she's left to her own devices to navigate through a world she feels is no longer safe or as she left it. Melodramatic I know, but it works well. Em builds up the courage to interview Garrett Malcom in order to complete the biography. She is totally smitten by his Hollywood good looks and charm but there's so much more she needs to learn about him and the people who are in his life.

Barnes does a great job at setting up the character of Em that almost too suddenly I knew there was something wrong with this woman. Besides the obvious fact that she's almost agoraphobic, there is just something totally nutso about her. I find the biggest mystery of the novel is figuring out our heroine and what is going on with all the people surrounding her.

One other thing I appreciated in this novel was the use of police reports and tape recorded conversations between Teddy and the interviewee. Without these elements, the story would not have worked as a mystery. The recorded conversations also bring to life characters other than Em allowing them to be just as real as her. The juxtaposition of one of Shakespeare's most famous works and this novel work so well together.

In conclusion, I enjoyed this read and can't wait to read more by Linda Barnes.***

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.