Ghost Talkers
Ratings19
Average rating3.7
"Ginger Stuyvesant, an American heiress living in London during World War I, is engaged to Captain Benjamin Harford, an intelligence officer. Ginger is a medium for the Spirit Corps, a special Spiritualist force ... Ginger and her fellow mediums contribute a great deal to the war efforts, so long as they pass the information through appropriate channels. While Ben is away at the front, Ginger discovers the presence of a traitor. Without the presence of her fiancé to validate her findings, the top brass thinks she's just imagining things"--Amazon.com.
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A quick read. Light, but not as frothy as I anticipated. Historical fiction done right in a show-not-tell way.
The main thing I lothe about historical fiction is trying to shoehorn in Actual People, and Kowal only tries it once (as a brief cameo, at that).
I forgive it, I enjoyed the book.
Mary Robinette Kowal is one of my favourite writers and this did not let me down.
Pros: brilliant premise, some heart-wrenching scenes, great characters
Cons: a few off notes
July 1916, the Great War continues and so does the work of the Spirit Corps, taking reports and messages from the British dead. Ginger Stuyvessant is a medium, doing her duty both with the ghosts and at the hospitality tent that acts as their cover. When a message comes through suggesting that the Spirit Corps is being targeted, her fiance and military spy, Captain Ben Harford, starts to investigate.
I absolutely loved the premise of this book. Mediums who used the ghosts of the dead to track enemy troop positions? What a brilliant idea. If, of course, also a horrific one as it's entirely dependant on your side dying. I loved that part of the mediums' job was assuring each soldier that their death had meaning.
The cast was great. I loved Ginger's pluck and her relationship with the members of her circle as well as the deep love she has for Ben. Ben is also a good character, trying to protect Ginger while acknowledging that part of what made him fall in love with her was her adventurous spirit.
I was impressed that Kowal brought in an Indian squad as well as a West Indian woman, and horrified by how they were treated by the military brass.
Given that it details wartime, it's not surprising that there are some heart-wrenching scenes.
A few minor things bugged me, like at the end I got Edna and Aunt Edie confused. There was also an ending scene with a character that rang a bit false to me.
The mystery was well done with a good number of twists and turns to the investigation. Ginger and Ben certainly work hard to find out what's going on, taking a lot of physical - and other - punishment.
I really enjoyed this novella. It's only about 200 pages, but it took a while to read, simply because of the heavy subject matter. I would love to see more done with this setting/premise.
