Ghostwriter #2
I really enjoy this quirky new series featuring a nameless ghostwriter as the main character. In the first book, the writer trailed a Hilary Clinton-esque figure and wound up solving a crime with her. In this follow up, she’s now an established professional after publishing an account of her previous adventure and is recruited for a private cruise for wannabe writers. She’s the “mystery writer” instructor, along with a poet, a memoirist, and an ultra successful romance writer. We eventually learn her pen name, Belle Currer, which certainly makes things simpler from a logistical point of view.
The cruise has been set up by a former school friend of Belle’s, Payton, who has subsequently gone on to fame and glory. Both women are astonished when the third member of their grad school triumvirate, Flora, shows up, as she’s suing Payton for stealing the book concept she claims she’s been working on for decades. They soon learn she’s only appeared on scene in an effort to make Payton miserable.
Donovan does a nice job setting things up, both in terms of the ship, the writing conference, and the tensions and rivalries between the characters. The cast includes Joan Chen, who wants to be a writer but is serving as the ship’s doc (she and Belle meet when Belle has a bout of seasickness early on), Payton’s chic wife, Nicole, Payton’s bitchy assistant, Jackson, as well as various women attending the conference.
When things go south after a first mysterious death, Belle and Doctor Joan unite as a detective team. As she did in the first instalment, Belle willingly assumes the “Hastings” role and allows Joan to take the lead. As they’re at sea with no visible security (everyone signed a waiver before signing up), the amateur detection seems perfectly plausible. This is a classic setting, of course, and the ship provides a “closed circle,” that is, someone on board must be the guilty party. As more deaths occur, Joan and Belle are hot on the trail.
Donovan is a witty and sometimes unexpected writer, a sharp observer of human interaction and character, and pretty funny as well, his skills renewing a very traditional mode of storytelling. With the set up he seems to be adopting – like a traditional ghost, “Belle” the ghost writer can go just about anywhere and remain kind of invisible – giving Donovan lots of leeway in terms of her finding more murders to solve. The resolution here is quite ingenious, and as in all the best golden age style mysteries, the clues were right there for the reader to discover. These are fun reads which also make you use your brain. — Robin Agnew