The Anatomy of Ghosts

by Andrew Taylor

Overview

1786, Jerusalem College, Cambridge

The ghost of Sylvia Whichcote is rumored to be haunting Jerusalem ever since student Frank Oldershaw claimed to have seen the dead woman prowling the grounds and was locked up because of his violent reaction to these disturbed visions.

Desperate to salvage her son's reputation, Lady Anne Oldershaw employs John Holdsworth, author of The Anatomy of Ghosts--a stinging account of why ghosts are mere delusion--to investigate. But his arrival in Cambridge disrupts an uneasy status quo as he glimpses a world of privilege and abuse, where the sinister Holy Ghost Club governs life at Jerusalem more effectively than the Master, Dr. Carbury, ever could.

And when Holdsworth finds himself haunted--not only by the ghost of his dead wife, Maria, but also by Elinor, the very-much-alive Master's wife--his fate is sealed. He must find Sylvia's murderer, or else the hauntings will continue. And not one of this troubled group will leave the claustrophobic confines of Jerusalem unchanged.

CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger winner Andrew Taylor returns with an outstanding historical novel that will simultaneously keep the reader riveted, and enchant with its effortless elegance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781401324490
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	01/25/2011
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	926,460
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Andrew Taylor is the author of many crime and suspense novels. The recipient of the Crime Writers' Association 2009 Cartier Diamond Dagger for sustained excellence in crime writing, Taylor has also won the CWA's John Creasey Award, an Edgar Scroll from the Mystery Writers of America, an Audie, and two CWA's Ellis Peters Historical Daggers (a unique achievement), and also won the CWA's Diamond Dagger. His website is www.andrew-taylor.co.uk.

Editorial Reviews

…pitches us into dynamic but rowdy 18th-century England, when superstition still held a grip on rational minds despite the advent of the Enlightenment.
—The New York Times

Marilyn Stasio

Andrew Taylor's brooding thriller…[is a] dark and gripping tale.
—The Washington Post

Wendy Smith

Set in England in 1786, this masterful thriller from British author Taylor (Bleeding Heart Square) opens on a tragic note. In the months since London bookseller John Holdsworth's little son, Georgie, slipped into the Thames and hit his head against a coal barge with fatal results, Holdsworth's grief-stricken wife, Maria, has repeatedly visited the site of the boy's death. Until her own untimely death, Maria spends most of her days with a woman who relays messages from Georgie from the beyond. At loose ends, Holdsworth, who's written a treatise debunking ghost sightings, accepts an assignment from Lady Anne Oldershaw in Cambridge to prove to her son, a Jerusalem College student who claims to have seen a ghost, that he's suffering from a delusion. Fans of Michael Cox and Charles Palliser will relish this sophisticated period puzzle, which takes an intriguing look at the age-old question of the reality of ghosts. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Award-winning British crime fiction author Taylor (The American Boy; The Stain on the Silence) sets his latest novel in 18th-century Cambridge, England, where the elite collegiate aristocracy is investigating a sighting of a local woman's ghost. John Holdsworth, bookseller and author of a book discounting the existence of spirits (appropriately itself titled The Anatomy of Ghosts) is asked to inspect two mysterious drownings at the college. As Holdsworth probes the institution for answers, he is met with disdain by the close-knit academic society. More a haunting exploration into the underside of an intellectual hierarchy than a ghost tale, Taylor's latest delivers an original historical mystery that uses the language and attitude of the period in a fresh way.Verdict While the supernatural element is used more as a mechanism to weave the mystery rather than being the focus of the story, the result remains a successful piece of compelling suspense literature and sophisticated historical crime fiction.—Carolann Curry, Mercer Univ. Medical Lib., Macon, GA

Library Journal

Set in eighteenth-century England, THE ANATOMY OF GHOSTS is a masterful thriller. Narrator John Telfer transports listeners to Jerusalem College, Cambridge, with a vivid narration in perfect harmony with the people and times. London bookseller John Holdsworth, who has written a treatise debunking ghost sightings, is commissioned to investigate Lady Anne Oldershaw’s son’s mental illness, which is tied to a woman’s mysterious death, a secret society, and a ghost. Young Oldershaw is a Jerusalem student. Telfer effortlessly provides a unique vocal identity for a wide range of good fellows and villains. His ability to vocalize emotion is outstanding. THE ANATOMY OF GHOSTS is authentic in both the written and spoken word. T.J.M. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

MAY 2011 - AudioFile

University life circa 1786.

After his son's accidental drowning and his wife's despairing suicide, London bookseller John Holdsworth is threatened by insolvency. But a commission from Lady Anne Oldershaw to catalog her late husband's library, bequeathed to Cambridge's Jerusalem College, may signal an upturn in his fortunes. Lady Anne adds one stipulation, however. Holdsworth must locate her son Frank and return him home. Holdsworth is duly dispatched to Cambridge, where he's billeted with Lady Anne's goddaughter Elinor and her ailing husband, Dr. Carbury. Holdsworth locates Frank, who's been under the care of a specialist in mental disorders since his induction into Jerusalem College's Holy Ghost Club and subsequent tormenting by the ghost of beautiful, abused Mrs. Whichcote, whose husband Philip heads up the Ghost Club's debaucheries. More scandal threatens Jerusalem: Even as Dr. Carbury is in his death throes, a frisson of lust attacks Elinor every time she thinks of Holdsworth; a promising scholar is accused of thievery; a lackluster student purchases a thesis proposal; and another woman's death can be laid at the Ghost Club's doorstep. Moreover, Holdsworth finds the library collection mostly inconsequential, and his fondness for Elinor seems disloyal to his wife's memory. Before academe settles down again to intellectual pursuits, blackmail, nocturnal trysts and a re-evaluation of a ghost sighting will surface.

Eighteenth-century Cambridge life exquisitely detailed by Taylor, recipient of the Crime Writers Association Cartier Diamond Dagger award (2009).

Kirkus Reviews