2.24.2008

Ghost of a Chance Review


Karma Marx is a transmortis anomaly exterminator or in other words she exorcises spirits and entities to the Akashic Plain where they dwell in perpetual torment until they are released. Karma has been working for the Akashic League exterminating spirits because she was charged with wergeld for an accidental murder. Karma is also half poltergeist which gives her special abilities that mere humans don’t have.


Karma’s marriage to Spider has been shaky for a while but after receiving some disturbing pictures, she’s had enough of his sick ways. Karma wants a divorce. The only problem is Spider wants Karma to clean aka exterminate one more house before he grants her a divorce. This house is one that Spider bought from a poltergeist named Adam. Karma doesn’t know the whole story about the house when she arrives to exterminate and is shocked when she meets the owner, Adam, still living there.


Karma has a habit of not truly exterminating the houses she cleans. Sometimes she tends to take the spirits back to her home as house guests and unbeknownst to her Spider is well aware of her dirty little secret. Since Karma can’t be trusted to do the job right, Spider shows up at the house with his partner Meredith. An argument ensues over who the rightful owner of the house is, and along with a couple other people, the house is put under a seal by Adam. Everyone is trapped in the house until the seal is released and questions are answered.


When one of the ‘’house guests’’ ends up murdered, everyone is a suspect. Secrets are uncovered and pasts are brought back to the surface. No one trusts each other and there is a murderer amongst them. Will Karma and Adam be able to find the killer before they murder another person?


GHOST OF A CHANCE is a paranormal murder mystery with a surprise ending. While the mystery was tightly plotted, I found the ending to be implausible and out of left field. Some of the subject matter is too dark for the light humorous tone of the story and feels out of place. I struggled to finish this short book because of the lack of characterization and blandness of the writing. Several made up words are used to describe things in the Otherworld, but they are never fully explained.

GHOST OF A CHANCE reads like a young adult book but the darker subject matter make it too much for a child to read. I wasn’t thrilled with this book and wouldn’t recommend it.

7 comments:

  1. Hi, Rachael! Remeber me? lol I'm just quickly passing by, exams haven't even started, I'm just doing a lot of studying. Anyway. MacAlister is one of my favorite authors every but I've never read her YA stuff and honestly, I'm not incline to! Great review, though! :)

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  2. Hey Wendy! Ghost of a Chance is NOT a YA book that I know of. I just said that it read like one in my opinion. You may like it though since we differ sometimes with books. LOL

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  3. You mean differ as in I have better taste than you, right? LOL!

    I thought her Kate March only did YA books, I'm not sure. In any case, I've only read her MacAlister stuff.

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  4. That's a shame you didn't enjoy it. :( I was thinking the same thing as Wendy that it was a YA title, but maybe not. I'll have to check it out sometime. She has a spin-off coming up from her dragon series that should be good. :)

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  5. I haven't read too many YA books in my time, but my daughter brought me her book she really enjoyed and so far I'm enjoying this book, Archy the Flying Dolphin & the Vampire's Curse.
    It's about these kids that try and save their uncle from the evil darkness but could be in trouble themselves with this evil vampire.
    It's pretty good, almost done...I'll let you know when I'm done.
    Has anyone else read this?

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  6. Hey Rachael!
    This sounds like one of the odder books you have ever reviewed. What is up with the name Karma Marx? I wonder if she meant to create a comparison with Karl Marx. Anyway, this was a very thoughtful and excellent review.

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