Portrait of a Ghost by Betty Ann Harris

Portrait of a Ghost by Betty Ann Harris
Publisher: Books We Love, Ltd.
Genre: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Romance, Paranormal, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

The quaint New England coastal town of Mystic Port is steeped in history, and has more than its fair share of restless sprits. Prudence Trivit, the town’s librarian and historian, is on a mission to exonerate her great Aunt Alexandra, who in 1897 was accused and arrested for the murder of her husband, the mayor. Prudy is certain of her great aunt’s innocence.

A handsome young journalist, Dylan Monroe, is sent to Mystic Port to interview Prudy for the town’s 250th anniversary celebration.
Dylan notices Prudy’s uncanny resemblance to her great aunt in the large portrait of Alexandra that hangs in the museum. He is stunned by her beauty and quite intrigued by the story of Alexandra.

Prudy and Dylan become quite the investigative team. There are mishaps and mayhem as the spirit of Alexandra try’s to point them in the right direction and an opposing spirit tries to dissuade them.

True love never dies.

The romantic subplot was sweet and complemented the mystery and paranormal storylines nicely. While I didn’t have a lot of time to get to know the characters involved in it, I had a good feeling about them given how kind they were to each other and how many hobbies they shared in common. They seemed to have a decent foundation for possibly building something beautiful together, and this is something I’d love to see expounded upon if the author ever decides to write a sequel as there was still plenty of space to explore the possibilities between them.

I found myself wishing for more details as I was reading this piece. There simply wasn’t much time spent describing the characters or settings, and this made it hard to imagine what anyone or anything looked like. Given the fast pace, I definitely wasn’t expecting pages of descriptions for everything, but more attention paid to this would have made me feel comfortable choosing a higher rating as the plot itself was exactly the sort of story I like to pick up.

The genealogy subplot piqued my interest. I sometimes wonder about a few mysteries in my own family tree, so books that explore characters who have similar questions about their ancestors are always interesting to read. It’s difficult to go into much detail about what Prudy learned without giving away spoilers, but I liked all of the clues she discovered, how she pieced them together, and how hard she worked to figure out the portions that didn’t quite make sense to her. There’s something so satisfying about a character who cares this much about her ancestry and wants to uncover the truth.

Portrait of a Ghost made me smile.