When his Uncle Mortimer died and left him Hoxne Grange, the family’s Gilded Age estate, Tristan Pryce knew he wasn’t going to have an easy time of it. He was to be the second generation of Pryces to serve as a caretaker for the estate, a way station for spirits on their final steps to the afterlife. The ghosts were the simple part. He’d been seeing boo-wigglies since he was a child. No, the difficult part was his own family. Determined to establish Tristan’s insanity, his loving relatives hire Dr. Wolf Kincaid and his paranormal researchers, Hellsinger Investigations, to prove the Grange is not haunted.
Skeptic Wolf Kincaid has made it his life’s work to debunk the supernatural. After years of cons and fakes, he can’t wait to reveal the Grange’s ghostly activity is just badly leveled floorboards and a drafty old house. The Grange has more than a few surprises for him, including its prickly, reclusive owner. Tristan Pryce is much less insane and much more attractive than Wolf wants to admit and when his Hellsinger team unwittingly release a ghostly serial killer on the Grange, Wolf is torn between his skepticism and protecting the man he’d been sent to discredit.
Fish and Ghosts is my third Rhys Ford book and it’s different from what I’ve read before.
I’m a sucker for ghost stories and mysteries but this time it was a little bit difficult to get into the book.
The idea behind it was really good but, to me, it felt a bit rushed. I would have liked more details.
First of all, Tristan and Wolf’s relationship just happens. They go from zero to one hundred just like that.There’s no development, no clue about what draw them together in the first place besides the physical appearance.
One moment they get on each other’s nerves and the next they’re lovers with nothing in between.
Then, there’s the Hoxne Grange, it’s history and the purpose behind Tristan’s presence there.
The author gave some explanation as to what the place really is but it was lost in the mayhem of details about what was going on at the time the truth behind the Inn is revealed.
Again, I would have like to know more. Why did Mortimer decided to make a portal out of it? Who was he and how did he had so much knowledge about things like that?
The writing style was a little bit confusing. The focus kept switching from one thing to another all the time making it hard to keep up with all the action.
I know I’ve complained about the lack of details in the beginning but, at a certain point, there was an avalanche of stuff about Wolf, his crazy family and what they did all in the span of a few pages that made me go back and read everything again just to make sure I got the facts straight.
There were some funny scenes that made me laugh out loud and Wolf’s ignorance when it came to the maid and Tristan’s dog was a constant source of amusement.
The ending lacked an important detail and that is the thing that started the story and that the author failed to mention how or if it was solved.
Seeing that it was something really important in the scheme of things and it could have affected Tristan’s life in a big way, it was just forgotten afterward.
All in all, it was a good book. Could have been a lot better with a little more attention to details but I don’t regret giving it a chance. Actually, I can’t wait to read the next one.
Happy Reading!
Rhys Ford was born and raised in Hawai’i then wandered off to see the world. After chewing through a pile of books, a lot of odd food, and a stray boyfriend or two, Rhys eventually landed in San Diego, which is a very nice place but seriously needs more rain.
Rhys admits to sharing the house with three cats, a black Pomeranian puffball, a bonsai wolfhound, and a ginger cairn terrorist.
Rhys is also enslaved to the upkeep a 1979 Pontiac Firebird, a Toshiba laptop, and a red Hamilton Beach coffee maker.
But mostly to the coffee maker.
