No one tells a ghost story like St. James (
The Book of Cold Cases), and her latest is another successful outing for the author. Set in 1959 in upstate New York, the plot follows the experiences of (potentially) unreliable narrator Ginette Cox. Ginette is an actress recovering from a drug- and alcohol-fueled nervous breakdown in a rental at 19 Howard Avenue, where none of the tenants seem to stay for long. The shaky Ginette finds herself unable to leave the house: a case of agoraphobia, as the hunky police detective who seems to have more than a professional interest in Ginette posits, or is a more sinister force occupying the house with its human tenant? Ginette’s only outlet is gazing out her window at her neighbors and imagining what their lives are like. But are all the neighbors actually living? Narrator Brittany Pressley does a masterful job with her narration, making each character distinct and easy to recognize, especially the acerbic yet vulnerable Ginette.
VERDICT St. James has said in interviews that her career began when she couldn’t find the sort of books she wanted to read and realized that she would have to write them herself. Now, she’s writing books that we all want to read.
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