Book 16, 336 pages
‘The Ghost Orchid’ by Carol Goodman. It definitely took me a good chunk of the book to get vested in the characters and I found the writing a little pretentious. I don’t particularly like stories that bounce back and forth between time periods; just when you’re ready to find out some big mystery, they jump back to the future. I get the effect, but you have to be sold on two stories and it doesn’t always work. Half the story is about a woman who brings a medium to do a séance with the children she has lost, the other half of the story takes place in the same home in the future in a ‘commune’ the woman had created so artists and writers could use her gardens for inspiration. I liked the supernatural bits and of course it sold me a little because it takes place in Upstate NY and I recognize the name of lots of locations used throughout. The end was predictable and the plot reminded me of a couple horror movies that I won’t mention so I don’t give away the idea. Mediocre for me.