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The River Ghost
242 pages, Paperback
Published October 31, 2025
2 people want to read
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November 26, 2025
A Gothic Western with a Pounding Heartbeat
The River Ghost provides a poignant, haunting and suspenseful look at a supernatural frontier legend set in 1883 Santa Fe. Thomas Clagett’s Gothic Western populates the authentic New Mexico Territory setting with a mix of historical and fictional characters who bring the legend of La Llorona, the Weeping Woman, to life and ultimately to death.
At the heart of the tale stands Catherine Danaher, a resolute young postulant who gives up her Catholic preparation in Pittsburgh to travel to Santa Fe after her sister’s mysterious death to care for her niece and nephew, Anne and Matthew. The children have practically been abandoned by their wealthy but absentee and evil father. Catherine becomes the moral—and emotional—center of the novel. Her determination to free the children from the oppressive environment and to save them from La Llorona gives the story heart and suspense, even as dark forces close in.
The River Ghost is masterfully and elegantly written by award-winning author Clagett, who tells the story in Catherine’s first-person voice. Clagett is such an accomplished writer that his female voice is believable and touching as Catherine tries to save her niece and nephew both from the evils she can see and the even more terrifying evils she can’t. The creeping tension keeps building the novel’s suspense until the final showdown between good and evil. Even though the reader knows Catherine must triumph, Clagett’s masterful ending still comes as a surprise to the reader.
The novel fuses the eerie mood of classic Gothic fiction with the rough-edged reality of an old-fashioned Western. The author gifts fans of both genres exactly what they crave, a Gothic novel with a mysterious and dangerous supernatural force and a Western with a pounding heartbeat. The River Ghost is highly recommended for devotees of both genres.
The River Ghost provides a poignant, haunting and suspenseful look at a supernatural frontier legend set in 1883 Santa Fe. Thomas Clagett’s Gothic Western populates the authentic New Mexico Territory setting with a mix of historical and fictional characters who bring the legend of La Llorona, the Weeping Woman, to life and ultimately to death.
At the heart of the tale stands Catherine Danaher, a resolute young postulant who gives up her Catholic preparation in Pittsburgh to travel to Santa Fe after her sister’s mysterious death to care for her niece and nephew, Anne and Matthew. The children have practically been abandoned by their wealthy but absentee and evil father. Catherine becomes the moral—and emotional—center of the novel. Her determination to free the children from the oppressive environment and to save them from La Llorona gives the story heart and suspense, even as dark forces close in.
The River Ghost is masterfully and elegantly written by award-winning author Clagett, who tells the story in Catherine’s first-person voice. Clagett is such an accomplished writer that his female voice is believable and touching as Catherine tries to save her niece and nephew both from the evils she can see and the even more terrifying evils she can’t. The creeping tension keeps building the novel’s suspense until the final showdown between good and evil. Even though the reader knows Catherine must triumph, Clagett’s masterful ending still comes as a surprise to the reader.
The novel fuses the eerie mood of classic Gothic fiction with the rough-edged reality of an old-fashioned Western. The author gifts fans of both genres exactly what they crave, a Gothic novel with a mysterious and dangerous supernatural force and a Western with a pounding heartbeat. The River Ghost is highly recommended for devotees of both genres.
Displaying 1 of 1 review