Miramont's Ghost by Elizabeth Hall

Final Rating: 2.8/5

There are some things best left unsaid and unknown...

   Miramont's Ghost is a story that would fit perfectly in a section of variegated Brothers Grimm fairy tales. Instead of the dark forests of Germany, this tale takes the reader into bucolic 19th-century Beaulieu France with an established aristocratic family as the central characters and their secrets that can destroy all within. Gossip can be just as poisonous and deadly as arsenic and in Miramont's Ghost this simple fact is weaved into a complicated noose that threatens to strangle the youngest generation of the castle. Whether the location shifts from the opulent opera houses of Paris, the polished floors of the Waldorf in New York City or the majestic mountain towns of Colorado; past sins and ugly rumors seem to follow and the hushed whispers begin yet again and well to be polite there are some things best left unsaid and unknown.

   In the end, Miramont's Ghost was a quick read that held my interest until the final page. A decent mixture of folklore, unsolved mysteries, surprising undertones and old fashioned storytelling that served as a needed distraction is how I would describe this title. Although quite a few times I found myself wincing at anachronistic dialogue, minor slips in history and aristocratic protocol, a few strings of forced and predictable drama and the story was a little lackluster in spots of potential that really could have shined for this reader. That all aside, Miramont's Ghost is still an entertaining read that touches on all the familiar elements of a ghost story that we all still eagerly lean in to hear.

-read and purchased on kindle