The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew TaylorMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Time taken to read - in and out over 5 days
Pages - 469
Publisher - Michael Joseph
Source - Waterstones buy
Blurb from Goodreads
1786, Jerusalem College, Cambridge. The ghost of murdered Sylvia Whichcote has been sighted prowling the grounds by Frank Oldershaw, a disturbed fellow commoner. When his anxious mother employs John Holdsworth, author of The Anatomy of Ghosts- a stinging account of why ghosts are mere delusion - to investigate the sighting, the uneasy status quo at Jerusalem is rapidly torn apart. Holdsworth grows to realise that the sinister Holy Ghost Club governs the privileged life at Jerusalem with a rigour far more effective than anything the Master, Dr. Carbury, could muster. And when Holdsworth finds himself haunted - not only by the ghost of his dead wife, Maria, but also Elinor, the very-much-alive Master's wife - his fate is sealed. He must unravel the circumstances surrounding Sylvia's death ... or the hauntings will continue.
My Review
The opening chapter is a bit weird, it is Jesus, his apostles and an offering of a pure young lady awaiting a chosen apostle. The time in the 1786s so I had no idea what was going on, however as the book goes on you start to understand what the chat is.
John Holdsworth is hired by a very wealthy woman to investigate what is happening to her son. He is as college and has become unhinged after seeing a ghost. John is hired after he wrote a book "The Anatomy of Ghosts" penned after he lost his son and his wife spent their money on a medium desperate to connect with her lost child. John doesn't believe in ghosts and that is what the good lady needs, John is in financial straits and over a barrel so reluctantly he goes.
What follows is a view into some very entitled folk, secrets within the college and a young man whose mental health is suffering and is volatile. I took a bit to settle into the book it goes at a sedate pace, the writing isn't the issue but I took a while to get what was happening and why it was relevant. A lot of the characters are pretty pompous and I felt for John who has already lost so much and now has to go ghost chasing. I think he was the only character I had any kind of feeling toward and mostly that was sympathy for what he had endured. 3/5 for me this time, this was my first time reading this author, if I came across his works I would give me another go.
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