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To me, a good thriller can be like a colonic...something breezy and unsubstantial to flush the system out, especially if one has just finished something bloated and ponderous (I'm talking about YOU, Tree of Smoke)!

"The Ghost" is a good thriller. A recently retired-from-office British Prime Minister hires a ghost-writer (duh- because the story is written in the first person, I never noticed that the name of the narrator/protagonist is never supplied) to help him write his memoirs. Our hero is the second one to attempt this job. His predecessor died mid-project, and the work that survives him is deemed unpublishable. The narrator quickly begins to suspect that maybe the first ghost-writer's death was suspicious, and that perhaps something he uncovered made it necessary for him to be killed.

The political allegory is so transparent, Author Harris might as well have named his fictional Prime Minister “Tomy Blare,� instead of Adam Lang. Despite that, the plot moves along briskly if predictably, and the resolution, although it seemed rushed, is satisfying. I wouldn't rank this among Great Thrillers I Have Known, but I thought the perspective was fresh for a political tale, and I also found the insight into ghost-writing interesting.