Book Report: A Ghost of a Chance

Not even mid-way through this book, I came up with the perfect description: tedious.

Peter Guttridge earned many high remarks about his British mystery novel: A Ghost of a Chance, one of those comparing him to Terry Prachett and Carl Hiaasen, which was a big influencing factor in buying the book. And indeed, Guttridge has a sharp wit and powerful one-liners, several of which had me chuckling. (First sentence: 'I screamed when my mobile phone rang.')

"Nick Madrid isn't exactly thrilled when his best friend in journalism-OK, his only friend in journalism-the Bitch of the Broadsheets, Bridget Frost, commissions him to spend a night in a haunted place on the Sussex Downs and live to tell the tale. Especially as living to tell the tale isn't made an urgent priority.

But Nick stumbles on a hotter story when he discovers a dead man hanging upside down from an ancient oak. Why was he killed? Is there a connection to the nearby New Age conference centre? Or to The Great Beast, the Hollywood movie about Aleister Crowley, filming down in Brighton?

New Age meets The Old Religion as Nick is bothered, bewildered but not necessarily bewitched by pagans, Satanists and a host of assorted metaphysicians. Seances, sabbats, a horse-ride from Hell and a kick-boxing zebra all come Nick's way as he obstinately tracks a treasure once in the possession of Crowley."

While obviously a master at handling enormously-casted whodunnits, I often felt very lost. Due to the nature of the protag and the plot itself, the scenery changes almost constantly and I'm left without a sense of place. Characters are introduced at a dizzying rate, but thankfully Guttridge seemed to predict that and added in prompts. The short sentences often made the narrative choppy and too simplistic for my tastes, however it worked well for action scenes:

"Going up and over was scary but quite exhilarating. Coming down on the other side was something else again. Cynthia hit the ground about a second before I did. for that second I was in airborne limbo. Then I crashed back down on to the saddle and the pain shot through my body. I never wanted to have children anyway."

I do indeed love Guttridge's humor though, and it was what kept me from giving up on the story. The characters are snarky, the situations beautifully refreshing and original--I've never (and never will again, most likely) read about a modern day chase on horseback. I'm not really one for whodunnits (something I can't and won't fault the author for), but if each story in this series is written as memorably as this one, I may one day be brave enough to have another go.

Four out of Five stars for originality and giggles.