“When Emma Vaile’s parents go missing while away on a mysterious business trip, she’s left all alone in her creepy old house. But her brother’s very cute best friend, Bennett Stern—Emma’s knight in J. Crew armor—arrives unexpectedly to whisk her away to New England. There, Emma settles into his family’s museum-like mansion and enrolls at an old-fashioned private school. She quickly finds friends in the popular legacy crowd at Thatcher and spends her free time crushing on Bennett. But the eerie visions she’s been hiding from everyone have gotten worse. Emma has memories of Thatcher that she can’t explain—it’s as if she’s returning home to a place she’s never been. Finally, Emma confides in Bennett and learns she is a ghostkeeper, a person who can communicate with ghosts. Bennett brought Emma to Thatcher to protect her, but now he needs her help tracking an other-worldly murderer.” [Publisher's Summary]
Publishing Deception now, when summer has just dug in its fingertips, seems like a disservice to the wonderful atmosphere Nichols created. I would have much rather spied leaves fallen, turned russet and red and gathered in high piles on the lawn outside my window, felt the first brush of winter’s chill outside my door, as I read; late fall would have been the time to settle in with it. Even so, I enjoyed it.
First I must admit: I am a New England girl through and through. I approach books set in my neck of the woods with a not entirely rational sense of trepidation. (That’s another post, not this one.) In this case, I enjoyed Nichols’ take on the quintessential New England town, and in fact live rather near one that could have been used as a model. While not overly bogged down in detail, the setting is rich and adds to the texture of the story. Plus, there’s the conjuring of my favorite season: fall.
Odd that my favorite characters were all ghosts, considering that we see very little of them (oh, pardon that awful pun!) The reader learns little about their past lives, but they have so much personality and I’ve found that I have a particular soft spot for little urchin boys who say “mum” earnestly and with genuine sweetness even when they’re addressing someone only ten years their senior. So, yes, the four ghosts that Emma encounters in her new home charmed my socks off. As for Emma, I liked her. Despite what was happening to her – seeing things, being left by her parents and uprooted by a guardian she’s crushed on for years – she takes it all mostly in stride. It was refreshing, actually, that she didn’t question or bemoan her fate every other page. The other characters – including Bennett, the crush/guardian – were somewhat cookie cutter and ranged from the wealthy prep kids to the nurturing nanny-type.
For once I wasn’t invested in the story because of the characters so much as the atmosphere/tone/mood of it. The ghosts and mystery angle lent the proceedings a suitably eerie undercurrent, the setting made me long for a cozy cardigan and cup of tea, and all of it made me yearn for a New England Halloween.
Overall, enjoyable and engaging.
