I was drawn to this book by the combination of rare books and manuscripts, bookbinding, ghosts and mystery. The result is a story that takes the reader through a number of different storylines, but is light and engaging and quite enjoyable.

The ghosts were key components of the mystery storylines, logically and meaningfully placed and not overdone. The ghost of butler John Grady was particularly well developed as a character in his own right. The main character, Anza O’Malley, is the ghosts’ connection to the physical world we live in, and while her ability to speak with ghosts is an integral part of the story, her character is not defined by that ability completely and is nicely rounded as a very human single mother struggling at times to make a living with her bookbinding.

However enjoyable the whole, there was a lot going on in this book. Along with the two mystery plots, though nicely connected together, there were several other storylines related to Anza’s personal life. With the various plots came a wide range of characters, many of who have the potential to reappear should this become a series centered on Anza. At times it was a lot to keep track of, many characters were not developed beyond a basic appearance, and the plots were all a bit shallow. I wish the authors had gone deeper into the mysteries, particularly the main plot of the missing manuscript, and held back a little on some of Anza’s personal stories, saving the characters for more thorough introductions in later books. But on the whole this was a quick, enjoyable escapist read and I’ll definitely look for future volumes in the series. ( )

The Book of Illumination - A Novel from the Ghost Files
By - Mary Anne Winkowski
And
Maureen Foley

As it says on the back of the cover “the criminal underworld collides with the spiritual otherworld” describes this book perfectly! And for once what you read on the back cover and the blurbs it is exactly what you get. Anza O’Malley is a ghost whisperer and can help those who need to go over to the “other side”. Her friends all believe in what she can do and so she is called to help out when ghosts take a liking to making life miserable for
Sylvia Cremaldi who is working on re-binding this important document. But soon this Illumination gets stolen and things take a turn for the worse.

This was a surprisingly enjoyable read for me. I wasn’t sure about reading yet another novel about ghosts and the people that talk to them, but this book wasn’t just another paranormal read for me. This book was many things; it was a mystery book, a wonderful story about friendship and family and a knowledgeable glimpse into the inner workings of rare book acquisitions and to those that maintain the books.

The story and characters are wonderfully written and came alive for me. I actually wished that I had family and friends like the ones here! The mystery had enough red herrings that it made it difficult to figure out who really stole the manuscript and the writing made me think that perhaps I should rethink the existence of ghosts living among us.

A very fine start to what looks to be a new series. I can’t wait for another ( )