Send in the Ghost by Susan Van Kirk

 

Many well-known novels have a common element: a ghost or ghosts. The list is extensive, but here are a few that come easily to mind: Toni Morrison’s Beloved, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, or the short story, The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde.

I suppose famous authors could throw in a ghost or two just for fun, but it is more likely their ghosts have specific roles to play in the elements of their novels. Sometimes they remind characters of certain feelings like guilt. Other times ghosts play a major part in the theme, as in A Christmas Carol. In Macbeth, a ghost is a prodigious player in moving the plot forward. In other words, ghosts are generally used for a specific literary purpose. When The Lovely Bones came out, readers were delighted that the ghost was actually the story’s unique narrator.

Back in 2017 when I was writing A Death at Tippitt Pond, I created a ghostly presence, but not actually a ghost. The protagonist, Beth Russell, discovered far too late that her birth mother was Melanie Tippitt, now a cold case murder victim who died shortly after Beth was born. As she struggles to discover what happened to this mother she never knew, Beth feels Melanie’s presence in Tippitt House. The scent of Chantilly perfume, Melanie’s favorite fragrance, permeates the room when Melanie needs to warn her daughter that danger is near. It also embraces Beth, surrounding her with her mother’s love. And when the ghost accomplishes her mission, the fragrance vanishes.

All right, so I was toying around with possibilities in that story. It was certainly an early preview of my next project.

Now it’s 2024, and my upcoming book, Death in a Ghostly Hue, has a real, bonafide, 100% ghost. His name is Daniel Lowry, and he built the 1870 Lowry Building, which now houses the Adele Marsden Center for the Arts. The executive director, Jill Madison, first sees this ghost in her art center one night when she stops to pick up a book. The ghost is dressed like a gentleman from the 1800s, and when Jill says this is impossible, that he’s been dead for a hundred and twenty-five years or more, he replies, “Alas, I am despondent about that unfortunate occurrence. But I try to make the best of it.” Yes, he’s handsome, funny, and also charming and clever.

I didn’t throw in a ghost just to have fun, although he is pretty funny before all is said and done. This swashbuckling ghost plays a vital role in the plot, theme, and character revelations. But why has this spirit returned to this place and time? I can’t reveal that [the author typed, chuckling with glee and anticipation] but this is definitely a ghost to remember. Death in a Ghostly Hue is the third of the Art Center Mysteries coming out this June from Level Best Books.