The Ghost Clause
Howard Norman
Rated: 3.50 of 5 stars
3.50
· 8 ratings · 261 pages · Published: 02 Jul 2019
*Janet Maslin, New York Times
Simon Inescort is no longer bodily present in his marriage. It’s been several months since he keeled over the rail of a Nova Scotia–bound ferry, a massive heart attack to blame. Simon's widow, Lorca Pell, has sold their farmhouse to newlyweds Zachary and Muriel—after revealing that the deed contains a “ghost clause,” an actual legal clause, not unheard of in Vermont, allowing for reimbursement if a recently purchased home turns out to be haunted.
In fact, Simon finds himself still at home: “Every waking moment, I'm astonished I have any consciousness . . . What am I to call myself now, a revenant?” He spends time replaying his marriage in his own mind, as if in poignant reel-to-reel, while also engaging in occasionally intimate observation of the new homeowners. But soon the crisis of a missing child, a local eleven-year-old, threatens the tenuous domestic equilibrium, as the weight of the case falls to Zachary, a rookie private detective with the Green Mountain Agency.
The Ghost Clause is a heartrending, affirming portrait of two marriages—one in its afterlife, one new and erotically charged—and of the Vermont village life that sustains and remakes them.
Tagged as:
- romance 4
- mystery 3
- literary fiction 3
- contemporary 3
- ghosts 2
- supernatural 2
- horror 1
- family 1
- cozy 1
- Add topics
- format - reader age
- audiobook 2
- book 1
- adult fiction 1