I was gifted with an ARC of this novel by the author, and that has not biased this review.
“Ghost” is a murder mystery in which the author did a masterful job of making the murderer appear sympathetic. He kills for money, without remorse; men and women. It doesn’t matter to him as long as his clients pay him for his services. How does one create sympathy for a mass murderer? I'm not sure, but she did it and I'm still wondering how?
“Ghost” is also a love story where the main character’s profession (as a hired gun) is nearly ruined by his love of a girl. No spoiler here, but the final chapter, the epilogue, is written from the girl’s point of view and is quite satisfying as an ending.
Ghost is a self-published novel which, in my opinion, needs some help. My main complaint is with the editing and formatting. Throughout the novel, Ms. Elyse makes little indication of who is talking and acting. There are many times when dialogue beats, such as "he said," or "she said" and paragraph breaks would have helped. Several times, I found myself having to go back a few paragraphs, or even pages, to determine who was speaking. Also, the book contains numerous spelling and grammatical problems which tended to ruin the story's experience for me.
Also, there are some gunfights that don’t seem real or logical. Both the “Ghost” and his adversaries, in near point blank range, can’t seem to effectively aim their guns at each other. Both shooters, get shot several times without killing each other, then recuperate within a few days.
Overall, I loved the story line. It had some interesting twists. However, in the last few chapters, Ms. Elyse dumps a bunch of twists that don’t seem logical based on what went on earlier in the story.
Due to the problems I mentioned above, the best rating I can give is 3 stars.