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Holy Ghost
513 pages
A wickedly entertaining thriller where a quirky small-town hoax rapidly spirals into a pulse-pounding murder investigation.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like watching a slow-motion trainwreck in the middle of a quiet Midwestern prairie. It opens with a deceptively folksy, darkly comedic atmosphere, inviting the reader to chuckle at the absurdity of a small-town get-rich-quick scheme. But the wry tone quickly gives way to propulsive tension as the harmless prank spirals into a deadly reality. The prose is sharp and wickedly entertaining, expertly balancing quirky local flavor with the pulse-pounding momentum of a high-stakes crime investigation. You are pulled into a world where nothing ever happens until absolutely everything goes wrong at once. It is a perfect fit for readers who devour fast-paced mysteries that lace their suspense with cynical humor and escalating, unintended chaos.
- Mood
- deceptively folksy
- tense
- quirky
- Tone
- wry
- suspenseful
- darkly comedic
- entertaining
- Pace
- propulsive
- Themes
- small-town secrets · unintended consequences · greed and deception · escalating chaos
- The writing
- Sharp and wickedly entertaining, balancing wry Midwestern humor with pulse-pounding thriller pacing.
- The arc
- Moves from the amused observation of a quirky local hoax to the gripping tension of a deadly, escalating crisis.
- Who it's for
- Fans of fast-paced crime fiction who enjoy a mix of small-town eccentricity, cynical humor, and high-stakes murder investigations.
Content notes
- murder
- death
About the book
Virgil Flowers investigates a miracle...and a murder...in the wickedly entertaining new thriller from the master of pulse-pounding thrillers. Pinion, Minnesota: a huge city of all of seven hundred folks who define the phrase 'small town'. Nothing has ever happened in Pinion and nothing ever will...until the mayor of sorts (campaign promise: Ì'll Do What I Can') comes up with a scheme to put Pinion on the map. He's heard of a place where a floating image of the Virgin Mary turned the whole town into a shrine, attracting thousands of curious people and making the townsfolk rich overnight. Why not stage a prank in Pinion and do the same? No one gets hurt and everyone gets rich. What could go wrong? And then a dead body shows up. It turns out that lots can go wrong with a get-rich-quick scheme like this one...and lots will. It'll take everything Virgil Flowers has to put things to right - before someone else dies.
Description from Open Library.
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