Craig Schaefer

Irresistibly drawn to mysteries, if only to debunk them, reporter Lionel Page exposes supernatural frauds, swindlers, and charlatans. His latest case is an obsession--at least for an ancient and wealthy heiress: verify the authenticity of a lost Edgar Allan Poe manuscript circulating through New York City's literary underworld. But the shrewd Regina Dunkle offers more than money. It's a pact. Fulfill her request, and Lionel's own notorious buried past, one he's been running from since he was a child, will remain hidden. As Lionel's quest begins, so do the warnings. And where rare books go, murder follows. It's only when Lionel meets enigmatic stranger Madison Hannah, his personal usher into the city's secret history, that he realizes he's being guided by a force more powerful than logic...and that he isn't just following a story. He is the story. Now that the true purpose of his mission is revealing itself in the most terrifying ways, it may finally be time for Lionel to believe in the unbelievable.

Ghosts of Gotham

Nickie Mohler

4 Stars for the book, maybe 3 stars for the audiobook.

I thought this was an entertaining read. I liked the writing style. I would recommend this to urban fantasy readers.

I wasn't sure of my rating because even though I enjoyed the parts that I read, the parts that I listened to were not good. I didn't like this narrator at all. The voice she used for Maddie made me dislike her character. I finally stopped listening to it and read the rest. Much better. 

This was the first book that I have read by this author. I will definitely check out more of his work.

I received a copy from Net Galley.

Alexia Cambaling

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to 47North and NetGalley!

Ghosts of Gotham is about Lionel Page, a journalist who makes a living out of exposing conmen and proving that there’s no such thing as miracles or magic. An expert skeptic, his life quickly takes a turn after a meeting with the mysterious Regina Dunkle who wants him to find a lost Edgar Allan Poe manuscript for her and verify its authenticity. In exchange, she offers to protect him and safeguard his secret. Lionel is then quickly thrust into a world he was not prepared for and in the process, he finds many secrets in his past won’t stay buried for long.

I thought that Ghosts of Gotham was a pretty okay book. It definitely wasn’t what I expected and it does get kind of confusing but I did like it. I didn’t love it, but I liked it well enough. The characters are kind of okay although I felt like Lionel’s romance with Maddie was kind of forced and unnecessary. I could have done without it and it may have been a stronger book if the romance hadn’t felt so forced. Still, the author does a good job at portraying this character who’s completely unprepared for the kind of world he’s suddenly facing. I don’t buy that he learns so quickly but it does get kind of waved away by his parentage or something.

The plot moves pretty quickly and it does diverge a bit from the finding the lost manuscript part, although everything gets tied together in the end with a neat solution. A little too neat for my taste personally but everything does get resolved. I’ll admit that certain parts were more interesting to me and I wished that they were explored further in the narrative. The twist it took was less interesting to me and while I liked it enough to finish it, it felt like there’s a lot of wasted potential there that I wished was explored further.

Overall, I’d rate Ghosts of Gotham a three out of five stars. It had a good premise and kept me interested enough to read through the end but I can’t help but think of the wasted potential in plotlines that could have been explored further. Still, it’s a good urban fantasy which I can recommend to fans of the genre.

This review is also on  The Bookworm Daydreamer

Ghosts of Gotham

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