I don’t really care that much what a book “is about”. Whether it’s about mining on the moon or needlepoint pioneers, it’s the same to me. I mostly just care about the book being well-written and, you know, entertaining. But I have to say that I’m not a fan of ghost stories.
And this is a ghost story. Michaels/Peters usually writes pretty witty books with engaging characters, but this has little of any of that — it’s written in a very subdued way. I don’t mind unlikable characters, but here the characters are… kinda offputting and not very interesting? So after 150 pages of this stuff, I was ready to throw in the towel, but I persevered for 150 pages more, and I shouldn’t have, really: The Solution To The Mystery wasn’t very interesting, either.
But I mean, it’s not a horrible book or anything. If it had been cut down by a third, it could have been a diverting afternoon read, but there isn’t anything here to keep the reader interested for pages on end.
OK, the next book I’m going to read is going to be something that’s actually good. I was going to do that today, but I had a hangover so I went with this instead, and so…
Someone in the House (1981) by Barbara Michaels (buy new, buy used, 3.67 on Goodreads)