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The Anatomy Of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor

The year is 1786. In Jerusalem, Cambridge a body has been found in Long Pond, and ever since the ghost of Sylvia Whichcote is rumoured to be haunting the college. It has certainly disturbed fellow-commoner Frank Oldershaw. His mother is determined to salvage her son’s reputation and sanity so Lady Anne Oldershaw hires John Holdsworth, a bookseller and the writer of ‘The Anatomy Of Ghosts’ who has recently hit hard times with the deaths of his son and wife, then the loss of his business.

In his book, Holdsworth concludes that there are no such things as ghosts and that they were either a vehicle by which charlatans could swindle money from the bereaved or the delusional figments of an uneducated and unsophisticated person. He came to these conclusions when watching his late wife being taken in by a fraudster who claimed she was in contact with their son but despite the amount of money she was paid just kept telling them the same things, things they wanted to hear.

When Holdsworth arrives in Cambridge he upsets the uneasy status quo as he glimpses a world of privilege and abuse. Then there is the mysterious and sinister Holy Ghost Club which governs life at Jerusalem more effectively than the master, Dr Carbury ever could.

When Holdsworth finds himself haunted not only by the ghost of his wife but also by Elinor, the very much alive wife of the Master, he knows the only way he can be free is to find Sylvia’s murderer. Will the cloisters of Jerusalem give up their ghosts? And will the Holy Ghost Club reveal its secrets to him?

Despite the excitement of the first chapter and the way it draws the reader in, this story requires patience from the reader as it not only takes a few chapters to build the scene but is written in the language of the day, which can take a while to get used to.

RRP $40.00
Published and distributed by Penguin Group under the Michael Joseph title
 

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