After the tragic death of her husband of less than two years, Lindsey sells her house in the suburbs and moves into a renovated townhouse in the city, only to discover that an earlier tenant—over one hundred years earlier—apparently still lives on the premises. Lindsey wants to start over, but she is haunted by her past, by unfathomable guilt—and perhaps by a ghost.
Shattered Echoes is a psychological thriller about murder, madness, and the supernatural in Boston’s historic Back Bay.
I am the author of six novels (The Art Forger, The Safe Room, Blind Spot, See No Evil, Blameless and Shattered Echoes), four screenplays (Blind Spot, The Lost Coven, Borderline and Shattered Echoes) and the non-fiction book, The Big Squeeze. In my previous career incarnations, I have directed research projects for a residential substance abuse facility, worked as a systems analyst/statistician, headed the Boston office of a software development firm, and served as an adjunct professor teaching sociology at Tufts University and creative writing at Northeastern University. I like being a novelist the best.
I began my writing career when I quit my high-pressure job after the birth of my second child. Nervous about what to do next, I said to my mother, "If I'm not playing at being superwoman anymore, I don't know who I am." My mother answered with the question: "If you had one year to live, how would you want to spend it?" The answer: write a novel and spend more time with my children. And that's exactly what I did. Smart mother.
After writing six novels and raising my children, I now live in Boston with my husband Dan and my dog Sagan. And yes, I'm working on yet another novel but have no plans to raise any more children.
Lindsay doesn't believe in ghost in spite of everything in new apartment moving...her books constantly being rearranged... things like her forks disappearing... the dog in the apartment one floor below cowering in the corner and her entire apartment being saturated in the smell of lavender. The real estate agent uncovers some some old journals written in the 1840's by the wife of builder of the house. The story slowly unveils a life of domination by a drunken husband and the heartbreak of losing three small children. What transpired in past has come full circle in the present and Lindsay finds that her life is no longer her own. I got a little frustrated with Lindsay and her hard hardheadedness...but maybe she had good reason for resisting that are not revealed until the very end. It's not a real scary ghost story...if anything it's rather sad. Anyone that likes history, a little of the paranormal with their murder mystery will like this book.
Well, this was going nowhere really fast, and then it turned! Once again, I had to rethink everything that I had imagined about Lindsey, and this is the genius of Ms. Shapiro.
Very well-crafted and super engaging, although I do really prefer her art-based books. Unrelated to the story, it did seem very dated, revealing its 1990s vintage -- some of the situations and set-ups don't work in a 21st century world with smart phones, ring doorbells and door dash, hence 4 stars.
Nonetheless, the ghost-of-Isabel story was entertaining!
I generally like this author, but this book was just to creepy and scary. It had things of my nightmares!! Plus the character development wasn’t well done. Sorry, Barbara you can do better!