The Book of Illumination

August 24, 2009
Anza O'Malley can see ghosts, a talent that injects some occult thrills into Winkowski and Foley's otherwise flaccid debut. When Anza looks into disruptive paranormal activities at the Boston Athenaeum, she quickly discovers that they're the handiwork of a group of ghostly monks who are hovering over a newly donated 12th-century illuminated manuscript. Their protectiveness suggests the manuscript is the Book of Kildare, which legend says was dictated by an angel. Many scholars doubt the book's existence, but someone believes in it strongly enough to steal the manuscript, setting off an investigation that enlightens Anza and her colleagues to the intrigues of the international antiquities black market. Distracting subplots involve Anza's efforts to help the ghost of a family butler escape the earthly plane and her attempts to be a good mother to her five-year-old son. Future novels in the Ghost Files series this book inaugurates will, one hopes, be more tautly focused.