Following the death of her co-writer, Em is fighting hard to keep her latest book project moving. Teddy used to handle the interviews, a star in his own right, but Em is nervous and nobody is sure she can proceed with the biography of a talented film director. Caroline, Teddy's widow, is clearly jealous of what their relationship might have been, but she has expensive tastes and needs the advances and royalties. Struggling through this atmosphere, Em leaves her reclusive office life and gets out to interview Malcolm, the awe-inspiring director. She does wonder, though, why detectives are interested in Teddy's single-vehicle crash on a rural road?

THE PERFECT GHOST comes from the author of the lively Carlotta Carlyle PI series, a contrast in protagonists and in environment. From Bloomingales and the Flatiron Building, to Cape Cod, we are at first irritated by our protagonist and her neuroses as she stumbles through her travels, then we see her regain confidence when discussing 'Hamlet' with Malcolm. Interspersed we find 911 call logs, e-mails between detectives and other matters relating to the accident. The plot feels very much like the film 'The Ghost', in which a ghostwriter picks up where a dead colleague left off a politician's memoirs. The interviews similarly take place in a room with big views of the ocean. Em insists on having a dialogue with Teddy throughout - 'I asked whether your car was badly damaged.'

To anyone who is interested in the lives of film and theatre directors, this may come across as an interesting jigsaw of the public face and the guarded secrets, that have made Malcolm who he is. A local blogger claims to have the skinny but wants to share credit if he shares information. Teddy had left esoteric codes instead of talking to his co-writer, who now laboriously unravels their possible meanings. A drunken, washed-up movie star and a quietly cynical relative of Malcolm are the near neighbours.

While I found THE PERFECT GHOST a little slow, there is no doubt that Linda Barnes has got thoroughly under the skin of her character, and it is always good to see a crime writer take on the challenge of breaking away from familiar territory. If I had not seen 'The Ghost' I would have been more impressed by this novel, and Barnes's fans will surely want to give it a try.

Book Summary

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.

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