Book Title: Madeleine’s Ghost

Author: Robert Girardi

Genre: Literary Mystery

Published Date: July 20, 1995

Rating: 3.5 stars

This #TBT review was originally posted on January 13, 2008 and was read for a number of reading challenges: A to Z Titles (M), Mini-Challenge and 101 Books in 1,001 Days.

If I remember correctly, I was pointed in the direction of this novel based on a review I read of one of Carol Goodman’s books…that if you like her writing and stories than you will enjoy this book. And I did once I got past the first 50 pages, and then I couldn’t put the book down.

The story begins in New York when you meet a down and out historian named Ned Conti. He has just managed to sweet-talk his way into a job with a church to find documentation that could be submitted to the Vatican in order to declare a sister in the order a saint. Religion, redemption, spirits and the spiritual world, narcissism, and addiction all factor into the lives of the various clearly delineated characters in this book.

I definitely enjoyed the chapters that took place in New Orleans and the bayou versus the dark and dangerous streets of New York. Nevertheless, all pale in comparison to the chat with the ghost.

A thoroughly entertaining read and I hope that Girardi didn’t stop writing after “Madeleine’s Ghost,” which is his first novel. [And it was not.]