Reviews

Handsome, sensitive and talented, blessed with a good marriage and good friends, Willy Constable and her husband John seem to live a charmed existence. They know their move from an apartment in Boston to a Victorian house on Nantucket will require adjustments, but both expect their willingness to work hardhe on his paintings; she on her needlework; both on their relationshipwill be immensely rewarding, even if John's career as an artist doesn't take off. But the apparition of a beautiful young woman severely disturbs their equanimity. Once the owner of their house, the woman appears only to John, and he quickly becomes obsessed with her. The ways in which Willy and John struggle to understand the ghostif indeed she is a spirit and not a figment of John's mindand cope with the devastation she wreaks on their relationship is the substance of this carefully wrought and quite credible ghost story. Thayer is the author of Stepping and Nell. (August)

A twist on the classic novel of a wife working to save her marriagethe other woman is a ghost. Willy and John leave Boston and his job for Nantucket and his shot at becoming an artist. The eight-year marriage is solid; there is family money for support and a lovely old house complete with an attic for John's painting. But John becomes increasingly obsessed by the ghost of the first owner, whom only he can seeand touch. What begins as a joke between husband and wife develops into a life-threatening presence in their lives. The book offers interesting insights into marriage, dependency, artistic temperaments, and the whole concept of ghosts, though the ending is not quite as satisfying as the rest. Not outstanding, but public libraries with other Thayer novels will want. Rebecca Sturm, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights