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The Ghost Writer

by John Harwood (Goodreads Author)

3.34 of 5 stars 3.34 · rating details · 2,311 ratings · 380 reviews

Viola Hatherley was a writer of ghost stories in the 1890s whose work lies forgotten until her great-grandson, as a young boy in Mawson, Australia, learns how to open the secret drawer in his mother's room. There he finds a manuscript, and from the moment his mother catches him in the act, Gerard Freeman's life is irrevocably changed. What is the invisible, ever-present th...more

Paperback, 369 pages

Published June 1st 2005 by Mariner Books (first published July 5th 2004)

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Mar 03, 2009 LJ rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary_post_1945, australia, england, male_author, horror, psychological_thriller

THE GHOST WRITER (Psy. Horror-Gerard Freeman-Aust/England-Cont) - NR
Harwood, John – 1st book
Harcourt, 2004, US Hardcover – ISBN: 0151010749

First Sentence: I first saw the photograph on a hot January afternoon in my mother’s bedroom.

Gerard Freeman grew up in Australia with an uninvolved father and an overbearing mother who had grown up in England but, other than stories about the house, won’t talk about her family. Searching through his mother’s dresser he does find a ghost story written by his g...more THE GHOST WRITER (Psy. Horror-Gerard Freeman-Aust/England-Cont) - NR
Harwood, John – 1st book
Harcourt, 2004, US Hardcover – ISBN: 0151010749

First Sentence: I first saw the photograph on a hot January afternoon in my mother’s bedroom.

Gerard Freeman grew up in Australia with an uninvolved father and an overbearing mother who had grown up in England but, other than stories about the house, won’t talk about her family. Searching through his mother’s dresser he does find a ghost story written by his great-grandmother, Viola, which hints of tragedy in his family.

In his loneliness, he gains a English pen pal, Alice with whom he becomes so connected it is his ambition to gain his degree in library science and go to England. There he uncovers more of Viola’s stories and begins to believe his mother had left England having murdered her sister. As the stories parallel family history, Gerard is drawn further into the past to find the answers in the present.

This is another example of the book that starts so well but goes awry. I was completely drawn in at the beginning and the first ghost story made me wonder whether I was old enough to read this on my own. It wasn’t horror, but it was wonderfully, satisfyingly creepy.

After that, the stories felt forced and a bit absurd, particularly one that is a bad take-off on the Chucky movies. Gerard was a character about whom I really found I didn’t much care. You also knew, almost from the very beginning, one of the characters was not going to be what they seemed.

As the story progressed, I felt it so did in a very predictable manner to a very predictable almost ending. But when you did reach the end, . No, I didn’t forget the rest of the sentence, but am indicating that there was no end to the story unless you count four blank pages and an author who decided it would be clever to leave it up to the reader’s supposition.

Call me old-fashioned, but I really like authors who actually write the endings to their books. I actually have the next book by Mr. Harwood on its way to me, and I shall read it, but I definitely hope for it being a vast improvement over this outing.
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Dec 26, 2007 Elaine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2007, december

There was so much I enjoyed about this book. I especially liked how Gerard's exploration into the mystery of his mother's past was used as a vehicle to present some nice classic ghost stories. However I didn't feel that the ending was very well constructed. I usually don't require a book to have a perfectly tidy ending but this one was just a little TOO loose.

6 likes · like · see review

Apr 14, 2009 Rebecca rated it 3 of 5 stars

I missed this when it came out but recently read a review of Harwood's latest book, The Seance. Couldn't get that one from the library, so I started with this one. It's a contemporary take on the traditional English haunted-house-and-ghost story, with lost letters, hidden documents, family secrets, generation-spanning mysteries, and other touches reminiscent of M.R. James, Wilkie Collins, and especially Sheridan LeFanu's Uncle Silas. Very well written, with some wonderfully eerie, suspenseful sc...more

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Jun 12, 2013 Victoria rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: lit-fic, spooky

What a wonderful book! It is even more enjoyable than I originally expected! This is one of those titles that I have picked up many times before finally purchasing it. In the past, the rather lackluster back description would cause me to set it back on the shelves, but after hemming and hawing over it for a few years, I am really glad to have read it! I am amazed at how little justice the back description gives the book. Not only does this have a solid plot, but the writing is more vivid and int...more

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Jul 18, 2011 TheGirlBytheSeaofCortez rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-to-read-more-than-once, contemporary-authors, horror, ghost-stories, psychological-horror

Although certain elements (veiled specters, haunted mansions, a porcelain doll that comes to life, and the finding of hidden photographs, for example) of John Harwood’s stylish debut novel The Ghost Writer, could be termed cliché, the story this book tells is such an old-fashioned "ripping good yarn," I didn’t care if he occasionally made use of the cliché or not.

The Ghost Writer is the story of Gerard Freeman, a lonely, awkward, sexually repressed boy growing up in Mawson, Australia in the 1960...more

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Oct 19, 2008 Marc rated it 5 of 5 stars

A young Australian boy is fascinated by his mother's stories of her childhood home in England. Inspired by these and by his dreams of England, he starts a correspondence with a crippled English girl, and ends by falling obsessively in love. When he presses his mother to tell him more about her childhood, she becomes angry and refuses. His researches into his family history uncover a mysterious photograph, enigmatic letters, and a ghost story, apparently written by his grandmother. When he comes...more

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Feb 12, 2008 Nancy Oakes rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: paranormal-fiction

A truly outstanding novel, one that I recommend highly if you like ghost stories and mysteries. This one is a definite combination of the two. I could not put this one down, it was that good.

brief summary
As a child and into adulthood Gerard Freeman lived in Australia with his mother. All his life he was curious about her life because when he was a boy, she used to tell him stories about her childhood in England at a house called Staplefield. This ended all too soon when one day she caught Gerard...more A truly outstanding novel, one that I recommend highly if you like ghost stories and mysteries. This one is a definite combination of the two. I could not put this one down, it was that good.

brief summary
As a child and into adulthood Gerard Freeman lived in Australia with his mother. All his life he was curious about her life because when he was a boy, she used to tell him stories about her childhood in England at a house called Staplefield. This ended all too soon when one day she caught Gerard snooping around and found him with a picture that she evidently did not want him to see. The stories about Staplefield stopped and this made him all the more curious. Another thing he finds is an old manuscript...a ghost story written by someone named V.H. Even though Gerard lives with his mom, they are neither one of them close to the other; he takes to writing to a penpal, Alice Jessel, and spilling his guts about his life & his mother and how he feels about everything. Through the mails, he and Alice become very close, although she says she never wants to meet him because she had been in an accident & could not walk & wouldn't want him to see her this way. But she becomes the focal point of his thinking...he makes a trip to London just before he goes to college to try to locate her, and while there, he tries to gain some information about the home his mom grew up in. Neither one of his quests are successful. However, in his search, he did find another copy of the manuscript that his mom had taken away and after reading it, discovers that the house, the people, and the life described there are very close to the environment depicted by his mother's stories when he was small. This makes him even more curious, and later he returns to England after his mom dies.

He puts an ad in the newspaper in London requesting any info re his mother's family & his ad is answered by an elderly woman who gives him his family history in a nutshell. He decides he must go to the house his mother had called Staplefield & seek his own answers.

The story is captivating & entertaining...the stories within the story are excellent. I got so sucked into the stories written by VH that I almost forgot there was a contemporary novel outside of these.

No complaints! Some reviewers didn't like the ending, but it is an appropriate one and leaves you kind of chilly. Have fun with this book! I hope the author gives us another one soon.

4/19/2004(less)

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Jul 23, 2007 Femmy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

Menurutku buku ini lumayan juga. Kisahnya tentang Gerard Freeman yang tinggal di Australia, bersama ibunya yang paranoid dan menutup diri soal masa lalunya di Inggris. Suatu hari Gerard menemukan foto dan naskah cerita di laci lemari di kamar ibunya, tapi langsung dimarahi, entah kenapa. Jadi penasaran...

Lalu Gerard mulai bersahabat pena dengan seorang gadis lumpuh di Inggris, dan seiring tahun-tahun berlalu, persahabatan mereka berubah menjadi jalinan asmara, meskipun si gadis tak pernah mau me...more

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Mar 24, 2007 Cheryl rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I found it messy and not at all scary. It seemed pretty clear from the beginning of the book where the plot would lead. There were a few twists and turns but no real surpises. There were stories within stories - but I did not find they added anything to the book. I was ready to give up on the book but finished it just because I had invested so much time. Had I known the author got bored and seemed to decide to end the book I would have quite after half way thru. Arg, as a friend of mine would sa...more

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Jan 19, 2009 bookczuk rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to bookczuk by: MartiP

Shelves: bookcrossing, first-novel-or-book

Creepy, convoluted and compelling...not bad for a first novel! You think you see where it is going, then the author twists the plot. Interwoven with Victorian style tales-- some of which I really would have loved to read more of--is the story of a complex family, complete with all the passions of love, obsession betrayal. and revenge. At times I almost lost track of the various threads, but was able to pick them up again in time to race ahead to the end. The author took us there, but I danced be...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Misha rated it 4 of 5 stars

BookList: Harwood's debut is a haunting literary gothic, a slow-building suspense thriller about family secrets and ghosts that is reminiscent of both Seamus Deane's Reading in the Dark (1997) and the paranormal film The Others. Gerard Freeman, a solitary librarian, lives in Australia with his reticent and fearfully anxious mother, who once regaled him with stories of her idyllic childhood in the English countryside with her grandmother, Viola. When Gerald discovers one of Viola's ghost stories...more

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Feb 17, 2013 Lori rated it 4 of 5 stars

Although avoiding spoilers (since this is not a new novel) I did notice that many people had a problem with the end of this book. I agree that it ends a bit abruptly, particularly since it took so long to get there. But what an enjoyable trip! A perfectly, richly written gothic ghost story with the bonus of even better Inception-esq stories-within-stories that were my favorite part of the whole book. The short stories, as we discover were written by the main character's grandmother, could've bee...more

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Jan 14, 2013 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: ghost-story-supernatural

The marvelous and creepy debut novel from the author of The Séance. I could not put this book down. It was literally haunting my thoughts throughout my day. Luring me back into it’s story. Another novel that is made up of multiple layers of narrative all twisting together to create a superbly oppressive tale. In Australia, Gerard Freeman, at age 10, sneaks into his mother’s room and finds a picture of a woman he has never seen or heard of. His mother discovers him and gives him the beating of hi...more The marvelous and creepy debut novel from the author of The Séance. I could not put this book down. It was literally haunting my thoughts throughout my day. Luring me back into it’s story. Another novel that is made up of multiple layers of narrative all twisting together to create a superbly oppressive tale. In Australia, Gerard Freeman, at age 10, sneaks into his mother’s room and finds a picture of a woman he has never seen or heard of. His mother discovers him and gives him the beating of his life. The story follows Gerard as he grows up and tries to discover some of the mysteries surrounding around his mother’s life. Who was the woman in the picture and why did his mother stop spinning wonderful tales of her life growing up at an English country manor, Staplefield? Does his mother have some dark secret in her past? As part of the narrative, we find letters from his English penfriend, Alice, a crippled orphan girl living in an institution that bears uncanny similarities to Staplefield. As an adult, he goes to England to search out clues. The narrative has sections devoted to Victorian ghost stories that he comes across. The stories are wonderfully written pieces on their own yet play a much larger role in the overall narrative. They seem to be connected to his mother in some way and in bizarre and haunting ways either mirror reality or seem to predict the future. The strands all weave together in the end and if the denouement isn’t quite as stunning as it could be, everything that leads up to it more than makes up for that. I think it’s probably the very fact that the novel is so well plotted and written and so expertly honed in creating atmosphere and mimicking traditions and tone from the ghost stories it pays homage to that it would be hard pressed to ever have a denouement that could out do what has come before. It’s the ratcheting up of suspense that drives this story and here he delivers 150%. The perfect read for October when the shadows draw in.(less)

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Nov 19, 2012 Matt Schiariti rated it 1 of 5 stars

Maybe it's because I'm not a horror afficianado or expert...but I just couldn't get this book done with fast enough..not because I was horribly addicted to it..no, I just wanted to get the experience over with and move onto a better book as soon as I could...

The premise? A young boy finds a mysterious picture of a relative who turns out to be his grandmother in his mother's drawer one day while snooping around and she catches him red handed. A strained relationship is the result of this little v...more Maybe it's because I'm not a horror afficianado or expert...but I just couldn't get this book done with fast enough..not because I was horribly addicted to it..no, I just wanted to get the experience over with and move onto a better book as soon as I could...

The premise? A young boy finds a mysterious picture of a relative who turns out to be his grandmother in his mother's drawer one day while snooping around and she catches him red handed. A strained relationship is the result of this little voyeuristic fancy between the mother and son. A mother who seems to have no past since moving away from her native england to Australia which is where they currently reside at the begining of the book.

The young boy, who doesn't have many friends (and it's no wonder why as you get to know how overbearing his mother is during his formative years) happens upon a mailing from a pen pal service...in turn he starts to chat up a little girl in a wheelchair...she becomes his 'invisible lover' over teh course of many years...already I could tell where that was going...BUT, I won't spoil anything..

During the course of the book, the boy (who turns into a man as the book's timeline progresses) discovers more about the woman in the photograph and finds excerpts of her old ghost stories that she had published during her lifetime..

This is where I have a major problem with the book..there's several instances where these entire short stories are featured. I have no problem with that. What I had a problem with is that only one story really had ANYTHING to do with the main story of the book. The rest had nothing to do with the boy's story or fleshing out the character of the woman in the photograph whatsoever..

But the biggest problem I had with the book is the ending. Which, and I can tell from reading a few other reviews here (some of which were from people who liked the book), makes absolutetly NO SENSE AT ALL. I read the last chapter several times, the last few pages in particular and I still had no idea what the author was getting at.

I don't mind a good horror book or ghost story. In fact, I enjoy them as much as any other genre as long as they're written well..but this one just left me with that 'wow, I wish I had read something else instead' feeling.. (less)

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Jul 23, 2012 Irenic rated it 3 of 5 stars

Poor Gerard Freeman, an overprotected and lonely Australian pre-teen, steps outside his restricted existance by beginning a letter exchange with a "pen friend" through a service. He is matched with a disabled, but bubbly young lady in the UK, who not coincidently, resides in the neighborhood of his mother's English girlhood. His mother is inexplicably horrified about this, but Gerard stands firm on continuing the correspondence, and it makes their relationship even more strained.

Year go by, and...more

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Apr 18, 2012 Jonathan Briggs rated it 2 of 5 stars

One hot day in January, a little boy named Gerard goes snooping thru his mother's dresser drawers while she's snoozing. He finds a battered, stained book and a photograph of a beautiful woman with a mysterious smile. Then his mother wakes up. "She sprang, hitting and hitting and hitting me, screaming in time to the blows that fell wherever she could reach." Hold up ... give me a minute here ... OK. All right. I'm OK. I must admit, I got a little misty reading this as it reminded me of my own dea...more One hot day in January, a little boy named Gerard goes snooping thru his mother's dresser drawers while she's snoozing. He finds a battered, stained book and a photograph of a beautiful woman with a mysterious smile. Then his mother wakes up. "She sprang, hitting and hitting and hitting me, screaming in time to the blows that fell wherever she could reach." Hold up ... give me a minute here ... OK. All right. I'm OK. I must admit, I got a little misty reading this as it reminded me of my own dear sweet mum.

Gerard is a lonely, isolated boy. His overprotective mother is fixated on her past in the Elysian pastures of England, far from the man-eating bugs and reptiles of Australia. His father is cold and distant and spends all his time in the garage playing with his trains. Until he dies. The only person Gerard has to talk to is his "invisible friend," Alice. Shortly after Gerard enters his teens, he receives an invitation in the mail to join a "penfriend" society. Despite his mother's misgivings, Gerard is paired up with Alice, a girl in Sussex, who was orphaned and put in a wheelchair by a car accident. Although Alice refuses to send Gerard any pictures of herself, he falls in love with her thru her letters.

Still nagging at him are the contents of that tantalizing drawer. He sneaks back for another look and this time begins to read the book with the strange rusty spots all over the cover. It's a collection of ghost stories, most likely written by Gerard's great grandmother, Viola. Could she be the woman in the picture?

As Gerard grows into adulthood, he becomes desperate for a face-to-face meeting with Alice, now his "invisible lover." After his mother dies, he travels to England to find Alice and dig further into the family history and Viola's stories. The secrets buried deeply by his mother get more sinister, and the strange fictions, written long before he was born, begin to parallel and intrude upon Gerard's reality.

John Harwood knows his traditions and carefully hits the bases: fogbanks, ouija boards, rustling in the attic, malevolent doll children, hypnotic portraits, vampiric suitors. He's so careful to honor the form of the old-fashioned English ghost story that he brings nothing new to it, other than an artyfarty obliqueness and a seriously dopey ending, neither of which it needs. In two or three long chapters, Gerard explores a spooky old empty (or is it?) mansion. Room. By. Room. Perhaps describing every stick of furniture and all the different wallpaper designs is Harwood's way of building up unbearable suspense. "I had a sudden horrible vision of some monstrous creature concealed, scrabbling loose in the dark." I'll spare your nerves: No monster jumps out at him, and it's about as suspenseful as reading the real estate listings.

This kind of ghost story has long since lost whatever power it might have once had to frighten. By now, it's mental comfort food to be enjoyed with a cup of cocoa and marshmallows by a cozy fireplace. Well, I don't have a fireplace. "The Ghost Writer" goes bump in the nite very quietly, very discreetly, so as not to disturb anyone's slumber. Shhhhhhhh....
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Aug 01, 2011 Jon rated it 3 of 5 stars

This novel begins with great promise--a young, very fearful, guilt-ridden boy tries to discover the truth about his family--a truth being willfully hidden by his over-protective mother. The things (probably exaggerated in his imagination) that terrify him--spiders in the woodpile, ants everywhere, some of them deadly, millipedes, snakes--are far scarier than any of the ghostly stuff that plagues him in his adult life. The main narrative is interrupted (far too frequently, in my view) by ghost st...more

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Apr 30, 2011 Isaac Blevins rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: just-for-fun, genre-fiction

John Harwood's The Ghost Writer contains everything that is necessary to create a classic English ghost story: mysterious familial past, dark houses, passionate letters, hints of spiritualism, a threatening entity. Despite all of this, it fails, in it's novel-length, to inspire the type of chills that a short story by James, Blackwood or LeFanu.
The narrator, Gerard, never seems to gel into a complete character - rather I couldn't shake the feeling that he was just a two-dimensional figure with n...more

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Dec 29, 2010 Janet rated it 4 of 5 stars

John Harwood sure knows how to write a ghost story. Sadly I don't think he knows how to end a ghost story - at least not this one. Until the last 6 or 7 pages I thought this was one of the best books for ghosts, hauntings, creepy houses, and family secrets that I had found in a long time. The story centers on Gerard who lives an unbelievably boring life in Australia with his unbelievably boring father and his mysterious, not especially loving mother. Gerard grows up with nothing to fill his life...more

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Mar 06, 2010 Stacy rated it 3 of 5 stars

John Harwoods first novel. It was a fun/good ghost story, but it did not make me get creeped out.

It is a story about Gerard Freeman, from Australia, who used to snoop through his mothers things after she would tell him stories about her 'childhood'. His mother was a paronoid lady, who grew more stressed as she aged. Then, wanting something of his own, Gerard gets a pen-pal named Alice, from England (the country his mother grew up in).

The story is crossed with letters between Gerard and Alice;...more

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Nov 16, 2009 Jaclyn rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I’m sorry but I didn’t really like the story. At first I though that it was going to be interesting because the cover was scary and I really like scary movies. But then I was disappointed in it, it wasn’t scary at all or mysterious just until the last 20 pages it gets a little bit interesting. More than half of the book talks about the stories that the protagonists read when he was finding about his mothers past in Staplefield that she never talks about. Which it was confusing so many name that...more I’m sorry but I didn’t really like the story. At first I though that it was going to be interesting because the cover was scary and I really like scary movies. But then I was disappointed in it, it wasn’t scary at all or mysterious just until the last 20 pages it gets a little bit interesting. More than half of the book talks about the stories that the protagonists read when he was finding about his mothers past in Staplefield that she never talks about. Which it was confusing so many name that it mentions I can’t even remember more than 4 out of 10 names. So it was pretty confusing, and I actually forced myself to finish the book, nothing dragged me or that made me want to finish the book. I only wanted to finish the book because I wanted to know how the protagonist and Alice ended happily after his mother has gone, even though I knew it was a “supposed to be scary book” at least include some romance in it. The saddest part in the story was when he was killed and I pity him because he was waiting to fall in love with his invisible lover and suddenly found out that everything was just a dream. I didn’t liked him how curious he was, even after her death leaving the last word so that he wouldn’t find out about her past, he still insists in finding out. I wouldn’t recommend this book to people who doesn’t read much books, because it will make you HATE to read books. I also don’t recommend readers who are under ages 14 or ESL speakers, because you would have to search every word in the dictionary or re-read the first few pages that you just read and plus this book is already boring you wouldn’t want to read it again, it will actually make you HATE books especially “scary” books. I just noticed that you can’t really judge a book by its cover, only read a book if it’s someone you know and have the same personality RECOMMEND you to read and tell him/her to tell you a little bit of the story, or else you would regret it of how much time it took you.(less)

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Oct 19, 2009 Jen rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. OK, this is definitely going to have spoilers so STOP READING NOW if you don't want to know details.

I just finish the book today. I think I was so excited to find out the ended that I rushed through it and ended up confused (and apparently I'm not the only one). I've been pondering it and I think I've made sense of it. Let me know if you agree or if you have other ideas.
So, Alice never existed. Something I guessed about halfway through, but still somehow shocking. Alice was made up by Anne, Phyl...more OK, this is definitely going to have spoilers so STOP READING NOW if you don't want to know details.

I just finish the book today. I think I was so excited to find out the ended that I rushed through it and ended up confused (and apparently I'm not the only one). I've been pondering it and I think I've made sense of it. Let me know if you agree or if you have other ideas.
So, Alice never existed. Something I guessed about halfway through, but still somehow shocking. Alice was made up by Anne, Phyllis' scorned sister. Anne exchanged letters with Gerard for years to keep tabs on her sister and also to exact a very long and undeserved revenge on her sister's son. This part is a bit disturbing when you think of the graphic messages they sent each other. Then Anne also created Miss Hamish to further string along poor Gerard and bring him to the truth. Anne had been hiding in that room the whole time, making the creaking noises in the attic and leaving the planchette notes.
So, now that I get that the whole thing was Anne and she was motivated to do all this by the horror of finding her fiance in bed with her sister. But some questions remain. Why did Phyllis decide to bring her grandmother's tale to life? Did Phyllis really intend on radiating Anne to death? Or was that all part of the plot to make Gerard think Phyllis was to blame? And if not, how was Anne disfigured? Was that Hugh in the cellar? Was Phyllis really a terrible person or was she just vilified after her indiscretion? And this is a bit off topic, but why was Harry so obsessed with "The Drowned Man"?
But basically, the events really do explain why Phyllis was so strange. She felt guilty for her actions and was also terrified that any day Anne would show up to take her revenge. Oh a thought just occured to me!! Did Phyllis suspect that Alice could really be Anne? Is that why she was so angry and why she quit talking about Staplefield? Hmmmm...
Either way, I define a good book by it's ability to entertain me and this book definitely entertained me. I would have liked a clearer ending, but not everything gets wrapped up with a bow.
One last thought, funny that a ghost story book filled with ghost stories didn't actually have a single ghost in it. :-) Other than that doll-child. What the heck was THAT thing?!(less)

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Sep 06, 2009 Andreea (The Moonlit Bookshelf) rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

Recommended to Andreea (The Moonlit Bookshelf) by: Melody

Shelves: gothic-literature, favorites

http://passionatebooklover.wordpress....

Young Gerard lives with his overprotective mother and his reticent father in a small Australian town. He doesn’t have any friends and his parents are very strict. His life is uneventful, thus, one day, he decides to sneak into his mother’s bedroom. There, he makes a mysterious discovery as he finds a strange photograph of a beautiful woman and a manuscript in his mother’s cupboard. However, Gerard cannot enjoy his discoveries, since his mother enters the r...more http://passionatebooklover.wordpress....

Young Gerard lives with his overprotective mother and his reticent father in a small Australian town. He doesn’t have any friends and his parents are very strict. His life is uneventful, thus, one day, he decides to sneak into his mother’s bedroom. There, he makes a mysterious discovery as he finds a strange photograph of a beautiful woman and a manuscript in his mother’s cupboard. However, Gerard cannot enjoy his discoveries, since his mother enters the room and beats him up for invading her privacy.

When he wants to find out more about the mysterious photograph, he realizes that his secretive mother has something to hide. He senses that the photograph must have some connection to his mother’s past, but she won’t tell him any further details. All he knows is that his mother grew up in England and that she lived with her grandmother at a grand country estate called Staplefield.

Gerard often thinks about the mysterious photograph and about Staplefield, but he can’t tell anybody about it, since he has no friends. Therefore, he is very happy when he begins a pen-friendship with an English girl named Alice. She is an orphan girl who is restricted to a wheelchair after a terrible car accident. She doesn’t want to talk about her past and Gerard agrees not to ask any further questions. Finally, Gerard has found someone to confide in; he can tell her everything and share his ideas and feelings with her.

Over the next couple of years, they frequently write to each other and their letters become very passionate. Gerard and Alice realize that they have fallen in love with each other and Gerard can’t wait to see his beloved. Thus, he plans to visit Alice in England, but she doesn’t know about his intention. All she knows is that Gerard wants to find out more about his mother’s past while he is in England. Unfortunately, he cannot see Alice during his stay, so he disappointedly returns to Australia.

After his mother’s death, Gerard leaves his home and heads for England. This time, he hopes he can finally meet Alice and be with her. He also hopes to find out about Staplefield and the mystifying photograph and thus solve the mysteries behind his mother’s past.

John Harwood does a brilliant job embedding a few Victorian ghost stories within Gerard’s suspenseful story and the reader soon realizes that these stories are somehow connected to Gerard’s mother. But how are they connected? And what does Alice have to do with these spooky stories? What does she have to hide, anyway?

Well, you’ll have to read this superb book to find out. You won’t regret it, as this novel is truly a masterpiece and a tribute to gothic literature! I recommend this book to everyone out there, since The Ghost Writer tells a story full of hidden secrets, mysteries, intrigues and deception. This novel is an astounding piece of work and a terrific ghost story! I just couldn’t put this book down and was eager to find out how it will end. I loved everything about this captivating novel, especially the stories within the story. The Ghost Writer will remind you of The Turn of the Screw and other Victorian ghost stories and it will linger in your mind for a long time!

The Ghost Writer is one of the best books I’ve read this year and I am looking forward to reading other John Harwood novels in the future.
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Apr 27, 2009 Alan rated it 4 of 5 stars

In this novel, a repressed, lonely Australian librarian, the son of an ultra-possessive mother and a timid father, conducts a long epistoral relationship with an English girl thousands of miles away. She has suffered a horrible accident which has left her a quadraplegic but seeks no pity. She becomes his "invisible lover" -- yet his fascination her prevents him from developing relationships with other women.
Woven into their tale are four other ghost stories -- manuscripts the protagonist keeps...more

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Jul 20, 2012 Pamela marked it as abandoned

Shelves: boring, clunky, confusing, derivative, disappointing

I suppose I shouldn't really review something I haven't finished, but I do have a review of what I did read. I'm not even quite sure what made me add this to my reading list years ago (really! Years ago!). Harwood seems to be trying very hard to write something like Dorian Grey. Trying too hard.

The premise (that I got from what I read) is that lonely Australian boy Gerard, whose mother is overprotective and rather a piece of work, finds a penpal in Alice, a paraplegic English girl who lives in...more

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Feb 26, 2012 Melissa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, ghost-story

Gerard Freeman grew up in Australia with an over-protective English mother and a caring but reserved Austalian father. His mother has an anxiety disorder and needs to constantly know his whereabouts. She is frantic if his is even thirty minutes late from school. Gerard is an only child. His parents live very separate lives. His father goes to work and works on his model trains in the evening. His mother keeps house and reads. She talks about how idyllic her life in England was as a child. His pa...more Gerard Freeman grew up in Australia with an over-protective English mother and a caring but reserved Austalian father. His mother has an anxiety disorder and needs to constantly know his whereabouts. She is frantic if his is even thirty minutes late from school. Gerard is an only child. His parents live very separate lives. His father goes to work and works on his model trains in the evening. His mother keeps house and reads. She talks about how idyllic her life in England was as a child. His parents each have their own bedrooms but seem content with their lives.

Gerard is a curious kid and wonders why his mother keeps a locked drawer in her bedroom. While she is napping in the sunroom, he discovers the key to the locked drawer and finds a manuscript and a photo. His mother surprises him and is furious, giving him the beating of a lifetime. She refuses to ever talk to him of her childhood in England again. He does not see the photo or manuscript again for many years.

When Gerard is thirteen, he begins writing a "pen friend" in England. Over the years, Gerard moves from a school boy crush to being madly in love with Alice, his pen friend. Alice is disabled from a car accident and does not want to meet Gerard in person, fearing that he will not care for her if he sees her in person and realizes the extent of her disability. After graduating, he saves his money and decides to visit her anyway. He has been writing her through the pen friend agency all these years and comes home without finding her and bitterly disappointed.

Throughout the story, other stories are introduced. You begin wondering what is actually part of Gerard's mothers history and what is incidental. The stories becomes terribly entangled and then you think they are clearing and then become entangled again. The more you read, the more rivetting the story, and the more engrossed you become.

Without giving away the ending, I am not sure how I feel about the way the author leaves the reader hanging. The story climbs to an incredible crescendo...and leaves you there!

I did not want to read other reviews until I had read the book. Now I do. I want to see how other readers felt about being left hanging. What did you think of the ending???

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Mar 11, 2011 Karyl rated it 5 of 5 stars

Growing up, Gerard is an extremely sheltered young man. His mother is afraid of everything and rarely lets him out of the house for fear something might happen to him. Her room is utterly off-limits to him, which makes him all the more curious. One day he finds a story hidden away in her room and reads it only to find it's a ghost story. Throughout his life, he finds more ghost stories, all written by the same person, which he later finds is a member of his own family. The stories, included as p...more

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May 22, 2012 Delisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, historical, mystery-suspense

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 26, 2011 Jenny Sparrow rated it 4 of 5 stars

Неоготический мистический роман о семейных тайнах нескольких поколений, о любви, коварстве и ненависти. Мне книга понравилась мрачноватой атмосферой тайны и загадки, неожиданной драматической развязкой, но особенно – вкраплениями готических новелл XIX века – получались этакие истории внутри основной истории, мрачноватые лирические отступления, которые в итоге имели немаловажную роль во всем повествовании. Если любите тайны, от которых стынет кровь, и не боитесь одиночества и тишины (ими книга бу...more

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Jun 10, 2011 Monica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What a delicious book this was to read. The perfect mixture of mystery/horror and gothic suspense. This is much like those Russian nesting dolls...ghost stories within ghost stories...all of them tied together with little overlapping plots.

The main character is Gerard Freeman...who you first meet as young boy living with his parents in Australia. Gerard is surrounded with the mystery of his mother’s past...and the mystery of his pen-pal, a young girl his age living in England. The plot follows G...more

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About John Harwood

John Harwood is the author of two previous novels of Victorian Gothic suspense. Aside from fiction, his published work includes biography, poetry, political journalism and literary history. His acclaimed first novel, The Ghost Writer, won the International Horror Guild's First Novel Award. He lives in Hobart, Australia.

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“Perhaps I'd be happier if I had a boring job like Filly, but then I wouldn't have any time to myself. I waste so much time and then I resent it when I don't have time to waste.” — 1 person liked it

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