I am trying to get in the habit of reviewing books on Goodreads and I thought I should include some of the books I love on here as well. The first is Fish and Ghosts by Rhys Ford.
Summary:
When his Uncle Mortimer died and left him Hoxne Grange, the family’s Gilded Age mansion, Tristan Pryce became the second generation of Pryces to serve as a caretaker for the estate, a way station for spirits on their final steps to the afterlife. Tristan is prepared for challenges, though not necessarily from the ghosts he’s seen since childhood. Determined to establish Tristan’s insanity and gain access to his trust fund, his loving relatives hire Dr. Wolf Kincaid and his paranormal researchers, Hellsinger Investigations, to prove the Grange is not haunted.
Skeptic Wolf Kincaid has made it his life’s work to debunk the supernatural. After years of cons and fakes, he can’t wait to reveal the Grange’s ghostly activity is just badly leveled floorboards and a drafty old house. More than a few surprises await him at the Grange, including its prickly, reclusive owner. Tristan Pryce is much less insane and much more attractive than Wolf wants to admit, and when his team releases a ghostly serial killer on the Grange, Wolf is torn between his skepticism and protecting the man he’s been sent to discredit.
Review:
I started Fish and Ghosts on New Year’s Eve and a very rude party interrupted my reading. Although the party was enjoyable, I was eager to get back to reading the story. I woke up early on New Year’s Day in a friend’s guest room and finished reading it then and there. If what one does on New Year’s Day carries into the rest of the year, I started 2014 off with a bang.
Fish and Ghosts is one of the wittiest, most unusual books I’ve read in a long time. Tristan and Wolf are both interesting characters, well-fleshed out with amusing quirks and real depth to them. The supporting characters are fantastic as well. Mara the housekeeper has some stunningly humorous lines and Meegan, Wolf’s mother, is a riot. I laughed out loud more times than I can count.
The supernatural aspect felt a bit slapstick and B-movie-ish, and I loved that about it. It added a nice campiness to the story and made for a very fun read. No matter how light-hearted it was though, there was enough depth to make it a solid story and I thoroughly Cut and Run enjoyed it. Tristan and Wolf are a great pairing and I am looking forward to the next book in the series.