Customer Reviews

The Ghost Orchid: A Novel

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Admittedly, Carol Goodman is not an author to whom I would naturally gravitate; however, life's encounters sometimes change things. I happened to be working with Ms. Goodman's brother the year her first novel came out. I had the opportunity to meet her and read her first novel. In the years since, I have continued to read her novels and, though I might not put them in the pantheon of greatness, I have always enjoyed them. Her latest novel, The Ghost Orchid, is no exception.

In fact, I would say that this novel is best she has written. Her skill with prose has certainly improved with each novel and her deft handling of two time periods which she weaves together to tell a single story is impressive. I would say that it was this technique that really drew me into her tale which would otherwise have held much less interest for me.

In this novel Ellis Brooks goes to a writers' retreat at an estate called Bosco in upstate New York. As she researches and writes her first novel based on the original owners of the estate, strange things begin to happen and she, as well as the other writers living at the estate, become caught up in the mystery of the summer of 1893. In the wake of the deaths of her children, Aurora Latham invites a medium, Corinth Blackwell, to conduct seances to help her contact her children. This leads to a series of tragic events whose twisted connections stretch all the way to the present day. It is a solid, albeit light, thriller with its suspense and surprises.

On the other hand, though Ms. Goodman has written her best here, she still remains mired in the same general set-ups that she has relied on for all her novels--a female writer/artist protagonist, a New York/New England setting, a touch of the supernatural, and water running through it all. (In this novel, a huge, complex fountain that dominates the estate as well as the Hudson River.) I admit that I am curious about what hold water has over Ms. Goodman but I am growing weary of her consistency. I want her to test herself with something more.

That being said, anyone who is a fan of Ms. Goodman should find this book to be excellent. Anyone who hasn't yet tried one of her novels would not be amiss to start with this one. In my estimation, she has reached the pinnacle of what her obsessions can offer in this novel.

I have been a huge fan of Carol Goodman's books, ever since I inhaled "The Lake of Dead Languages". Her writing style, her storytelling ability and her sense of "place" when telling a story are unsurpassed.

Her newest book did not disappoint me. It was filled with intrigue, questions, and a deep connection to the upstate New York region she has so captured. The characters were multi-dimensional, and I felt as if I had gotten to each of them.

My only disappointment was not wanting the book to end ! It is an excellent read, and I am certain fans of her earlier works will find it engrossing.

Good night! Ms. Goodman has a triumph here. A real good old-fashioned leave-the-bathroom-light-on all nighter of a ghost story. The author's vivid description fits the late-19th century setting and provides the atmosphere without distracting the reader. The two simultaneous plots, one running in 1893 and one in the present, intertwine perfectly. Fans of Jodi Picoult's Second Glance and Sarah Blake's Grange House and Beth Gutcheon's More than You Know are going to love this one. And the action keeps right on rolling. Carol Goodman must have had an out-of-body experience, because the ones that she describes Corinth Blackwell having are one hundred percent accurate. This is going to be one of my top books of the year. Ms. Goodman's husband, who wrote the poetry for the character of Zalman, did a great job as well. As a minor point, the cover is one of the most beautiful I've seen, I may look for the photo to purchase. If you liked The Lake of Dead Languages, you've seen nothing at all until you've seen this story!

It is not all that easy to write a modern gothic novel. In fact in my opinion only Mary Stewart and Barbara Michaels have really excelled in this genre. Over the past few years, however, Carol Goodman has been successfully writing a more literary kind of gothic novel. Some have been more successful than others -- "The Lake of Dead Languages," for example made for very riveting reading than "The Seduction of Water" and "The Drowning Tree." Her latest offering, "The Ghost Orchid" lies somewhere in-between -- the novel is divided into two subplots, a modern day one, which (unfortunately) takes a while to unfold, and one that takes place in 1893, which is really taut and suspenseful. The trouble (for me) lay in my desire to skim through the modern day subplot in order to get to the meatier chapters dealing with more interesting historical subplot!

For budding writer, Ellis Brooks, the invitation to work at the Bosco estate (a retreat for artists created by the late Aurora Latham in the later part of the 19th century) is a much desired one. Especially since the book she's working on is based on the tragic events that took place at the estate when medium, Corinth Blackwell, was invited by the Lathams to conduct a series of seances. The Lathams had lost three of their children to sickness, and Aurora Latham (the lady of the house) is obsessed with the thought of "contacting" her dead children. What led up to the sad course of events has always been conjecture, but the end result was that Corinth and her lover, Thomas Quinn, abruptly left the estate one night, taking with them Aurora Latham's sole surviving daughter, 10 year old Alice. What happened to the three after that, no one knows, and Ellis has decided to base her first novel on the incident. Unfortunately, the estate is not providing the inspiration she had hoped it would. Strange dreams and the lure of the lush, overgrown and crumbling gardens that Aurora Latham had created, is distracting her and the other writers at the estate as well. But it is only when the group makes a startling and gruesome discovery that they realise how menacing the atmosphere at the retreat really is. Resolved to discover the secrets that the Bosco estate holds, Ellis and the others begin to investigate, hoping that once the truth is revealed, the estate will be exorcised once and for all...

As I've already noted, "The Ghost Orchid" revolves around two subplots: the modern day subplot involving the writers at the Bosco estate and their investigations as to what happened when Corinth Blackwell came to the Bosco estate in 1893, while
the other subplot revolves around the actual events of 1893 (though I got the sneaking suspicion that they actually may have been chapters from Ellis' book). The modern day subplot unfolds a little slowly and is not very suspenseful for a little more than half of it. However, impatient though I was towards this slow unfolding, at work I discovered was the author's cleverness at building up the level of suspense and tension. Especially since this subplot was juxtaposed with the "historical" one, which was a much more riveting and openly suspenseful one. Mesmerising and enthralling, "The Ghost Orchid" is the kind of book that begs to be finished in one go (even if the ending was full of coincidences that almost beggared belief). Complete with vivid, colourful and lush descriptions of the estate and garden, some wonderfully realised characters, and a brilliant prose style, may not be Carol Goodman's best offering, but it certainly was a very absorbing one.

Goodman has penned an eerie tale of the past merging with the present, a mansion haunted by the ghosts of three dead children and the twisted affection of a mother tormented by loss. In 1839, an upstate New York estate, Bosco, is legendary for its gardens and statuary, not to mention the engineering feat of water that runs upstream. The eccentric lady of the house, Aurora Latham, has recreated a setting of grand mourning for her three children who died of diphtheria, leaving one lonely sibling, Alice, behind. As a palliative against his wife's all-encompassing grief, Aurora's husband, Milo, a lumber magnate, has brought a popular medium, Corinth Blackwell, to Bosco; rather than bringing closure, however, Corinth's presence exacerbates the complicated relationships on the estate, resulting in a series of violent acts, a chilling effect that belies the beauty of the surroundings.

A century later, Bosco has become a writer's and artist's retreat, where a diverse group has gathered to work on their projects, a landscaper, a frustrated novelist, a biographer and a poet. Most notable is fledgling novelist Ellis Brooks, who is writing about Aurora Latham's tragic life. Although some of her scholarly companions are skeptical, Ellis feels a connection to this haunting place, overcome at times with an acute awareness of what occurred so long ago, the whispers of the children, the occasional appearance of Alice, who was kidnapped after Corinth's visit, and Corinth's increasingly frightened ruminations. How this is possible, whether hallucination or real, leaves Ellis in a quandary and in considerable danger as she tries to reassemble the events of the past and Aurora's relationship with her children.

Blending the otherworldly ambiance of an estate shrouded in mystery with long-held secrets demanding revelation, Goodman succeeds admirably in creating the mythology of a troubled past. At long last, Ellis facilitates the release of the restive souls who demand their story be told. Underground tunnels, secret chambers, the thunderous beating of bird's wings and the insistent, mocking voices of the dead- The Ghost Orchid is rich with ambiguity and a distant hum of menace, Ellis the conduit for the past to finally make peace with the present. Luan Gaines/2007.

Oooh, this was good! I'm usually not spooked by ghost stories of any type, but this one was so well written and the creepy elements were so, well, creepy, I had to reinstate my childhood rule about not reading scary stories after 7PM. I'm a big fan of Ms Goodman's writing, and although this book diverges somewhat from the style of the first three, incorporating a book within a book instead of working off of a legend or fairy tale, still it does not disappoint.

This was my first time reading Carol Goodman and I now have a craving for more. She combines so many emotional psychoses the book reads like a psychiatric primer, yet I couldn't put it down after getting past a somewhat leisurely beginning. There are mediums, ghosts, abusive parents and grandparents, betrayed lovers, cheating spouses, ego-riddled writers . . . and in spite of them (or maybe because of them) the books illuminates the spark of pure humanity in its central characters. The gardens and fountains become characters in their own right, to the point where I was drawing maps and schematics inside my head. There are twists and surprises nonstop throughout the final chapters -- so many that you're thinking "What else is left to be revealed?" But Goodman keeps one ace of hearts up her sleeve until the last page - leaving readers happy, satisfied . . . and a little dazed.

Ellis Brooks has been invited to stay at the Upstate New York Bosco Estate to research her first novel, a fictional account of what happened at the Victorian mansion in 1893. Aurora Latham, wife of wealthy timber merchant Milo, hired medium Corinth Blackwell to contact the spirits of her three dead children, who all died from a diphtheria epidemic. Instead, someone, probably the psychic abducts the Latham's only living child Alice.

Ellis meets the other guests who are mostly writers of sorts with at least two working on somewhat similar projects involving the Bosco Mansion. As Ellis conducts on-site research her psychic roots as the daughter of a mystic begins to unravel what really happened in 1893 one paranormal escapade at a time.

Though perhaps there are too many mystical twists, fans will enjoy this fun gothic like mystery. The rotation between past and present is done smoothly with Ellis as the prime source between alternating eras. The cast in 1893 and today are fully developed to include a potentially haunted mansion and sinister gardens. Readers will take immense delight wondering until the climax as Ellis guides the audience through the estate whether this is a ghost story or not; that is what makes Carol Goodman's thriller worth reading.

I loved this book. The details and plot really drew me in. I am fascinated with Victorian era and I could tell that this book was very well researched. Great for people who love gothic mysteries. Wonderful read, couldn't put it down!! Would also make an excellent movie, I am waiting for it!

I have read all of Ms. Goodman's novels so far, and she never disappoints. I enjoy reading a mix of nonfiction (particularly history) and novels, and I just finished reading a very intense, 750-page historical biography so I wanted something rather lighter and easy to enjoy. THE GHOST ORCHID totally fit the bill. I read it in less than a day, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Ms. Goodman's stories always have a compelling mystery, in this case a ghost story, with likable and relatable characters. She also weaves in interesting cultural themes, in this case Italian garden design and Native American mythology. (Trust me, though it sounds random, the combo works.) Plus, as someone who grew up in Upstate New York, I always appreciate her small town NY settings, too!