Review/Gush: The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor

Okay, so I know I said I'd do a review for this book, but I still can't really summarize my feelings for it.  It's just all awesomeness.  So I'm just going to summarize the book for y'all, and then if it looks interesting to you, try it for yourself :)  If you love it like me, let me know!  If you didn't like it, let me know that too!  I love seeing different opinions on books.  Makes it fun to read about why some people love books and others dislike the same ones.  Do you agree?

It is very rare that I stumble across a book this insanely awesome.  I couldn't put it down, and thus stayed up very late one night to finish it.  The Anatomy of Ghosts is a slow-building mystery set in England in the 1780s.  It mostly takes place in Cambridge.  It follows bookseller John Holdsworth, who has recently lost his young son, his wife, and his bookstore.  Running out of money to live on, he really has no choice but to accept an offer of employment from wealthy Lady Anne Oldershaw.  Recently widowed herself, she hires Holdsworth to catalog and estimate the value of her late husband's library.  There is just one catch.  Before she will allow Holdsworth to work on the library, she sends him on a mission to Cambridge to bring back her son Frank, who is now in a mental home after seeing a ghost on his college campus.  It seems everyone has a secret.  Was the ghost a woman who was murdered?  And what role might the secret society Holdsworth keeps hearing about play in everything?  Was the ghost really a ghost in the first place?

While this isn't the fastest paced book out there, I thought it flowed very well for the story.  You only find out a bit a information at a time, and then you are compelled to keep reading to figure out what is going on.  With each new bit of information, you'll start making your own assumptions about what happened.  I was totally surprised at the end and did not see what happened coming, though looking back, I really should have because I think the info to suggest it was right there all along.

In any case, I highly recommend this book.  It is super entertaining, even if there were a few parts where the writing lacked.  I read an ARC copy of this book though, so it may have been edited.

Some favorite quotes:

Pg. 25: 'Pooh,' Ned bellowed.  'Books are not luxuries.  They are meat and drink for the mind.'

Pg. 29: ....as usual her face was completely white, a monochrome intrusion in a colourful world.

The Anatomy of Ghosts was written by Andrew Taylor and will be in bookstores on January 25th.  Don't forget to buy your copy!

Title: The Anatomy of Ghosts
Author: Andrew Taylor
Date of Publication: January 25th, 2011
Number of Pages: 432
Genre: Fiction, Mystery
Source: Advance Readers Copy from Publisher