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The Ghost by Robert Harris.

A roller-coaster of a book - and not in a good way.

I like Robert Harris books and I loved his last one - Imperium. I loved it so much that I was really looking forward to the next in the series (neil h. informed me that it was part of a trilogy). Therefore I was a little meh about the fact he had taken time out to write The Ghost. Damn writers and their need to write a story instead of the one I wanted to read! However, there was branch of Borders shutting down t'other day and they were offering 40% off all books. They had a copy of The Ghost on the shelves and I picked it up - I knew that I would read it eventually, I just didn't want to pay full price for something I might not enjoy. And, it was with that mentality (I'm not going to enjoy it) that I started the book.

But it is a Robert Harris book and, as I've stated, I like his books. It didn't take long for me to start enjoying it. Oh sure, there was the usual cringe moments - this man cannot write a sex scene to save his life. In fact, he can't even write a "sexy" scene to save his life:

She crossed her legs at the ankles, leaned forward to read, and I found myself staring into the surprisingly deep and shadowy valley of her cleavage.

But there are the usual page-turning chapters - those moments when you really should put the book down and get on with your life but you just need to find out what happened next.

The story is about a man who is called in to ghost the memoires of a former British Prime Minister, Adam Lang. The Lang character is clearly supposed to be Tony Blair and the author (Harris) displays a great hatred of Mr. Blair. It is that hatred of a spurned lover, an emotion I can understand. When Blair was elected, I was so excited, so positive - I sang along to "Things Can Only Get Better" for the several hours it played, as we waited for him to arrive in London. But it all went wrong. All the dreams, all the hopes, all the beliefs turned out to false. He wasn't the saviour we all thought. He leaves a legacy that is dominated by a war in Iraq. And, it is the reason why we went to war, that forms the cornerstone to this novel.

At first Mr. Harris builds his usual story web. He introduces the characters, he sets scenes wonderfully, he leaves enough clues scattered about to make you feel clever for spotting them. However the ending is rushed. It is trite. The denouement is contrived and a bit insulting. A true roller-coaster ride. I started of not liking the book, learned to love it, ended up disliking it. Of coursem ,y disappointment is mainly because it is a Robert Harris book and I expect better of him (except for the sex scenes). If this had been written by Dan Brown I would be announcing to the world that it is his finest piece of work. But, if it had been written by Mr. Brown, I wouldn't have picked it up. Over at goodreads.com I have given it three stars - I liked it - rather than two - it was OK - because it was a Robert Harris book. But, not his best. To finish on a quote from this book:

All good books are different but all bad books are exactly the same.[..] And what they have in common, these bad books, be they novels or memoirs, is this: they don't ring true. I'm not saying that a good book is true necessarily, just that it feels true for the time you are reading it.

Unfortunately, Mr. Harris, although your book feels true for a good solid part of it, it falls short at the end. It verges towards being a bad book.