The Ghost in the Electric-Blue Suit

It's 1976 and David Barwise has just joined the staff of a fading holiday resort on the coast of England. It's a summer of discovery for David; some of his coworkers are involved heavily in the National Front (anti-immigrant) movement. He's also caught in a romantic triangle with a damaged woman while ignoring the kinder, easier, and better match. And there are the ghosts of his deceased father and his three-year-old self to contend with—his father died years ago of an apparent heart attack in the same coastal town where he now works. While Graham's novel invites comparisons to Stephen King's Joyland, it stands on its own literary merits. It's luminously written, with just a few sparkles of the uncanny. A few Britishisms may throw American readers out of the story, but the well-developed plot and the likable characters will draw them back in.