Vanessa [Paperback]

As for our gang of heroes from the first book, we follow their winding-down activities after the confrontation in Georgia and return to home base, where among other things they take care of sending family lawyer (and new ghost companion) Gustav's body to the grave. The young new CEO of the company continues to develop his newly-rekindled romance with the new and improved Melissa, Ralph and Marianne advance their flirtatious new relationship in great haste, and Rachel faces the daunting task of possibly choosing between her husband's family and her new participation in the Fitzgalen Family. Howells does a great job of keeping a large and growing cast of characters busy and at the forefront of the reader's mind. While there are still several "for Pete's sake" and "you have got to be kidding" moments and bits of dialogue scattered around, these very human characters are by now well-known and liked by the reader, and I for one greatly enjoy even the silliest of quirks these people express.

The most unusual part of this book is the fact that there is no well-established storyline dominating it; the first half of the novel is mostly just a continuation of the first book, and the ghostly confrontation upon which this book culminates appears late in the game and doesn't really get a lot of attention. Thus, I can see how someone picking this book up without having read the first Vanessa novel could be disappointed in the story. For fans of the Fitzgalen Family and their devoted efforts to help dead souls stuck on earth advance to the next realm, however, this is just more of a great thing. I do wonder, though, about the number of additions to the team this novel gives us, especially since most of these people just do not connect with this reader the way the original core group does. That, of course, is a question to be answered by the Vanessa novels that are to follow. A few characters' continued presence here would be fairly unexplainable in terms of the context of this book alone, but obviously these individuals will play a role in future Fitzgalen missions, the accounts of which I look forward to reading and enjoying.

Set in the not-too-distant future, with society functioning pretty much as we recognise it, but with the addition of some convincing next-generation technological devices, 'Vanessa' equally manages to be a historical novel, a love story, a ghost story and a moral tale, all deftly woven into a cohesive whole.

A family - mother and son - are rebuilding their lives after the tragic loss of the boy's father in a traffic accident. They are strong, intelligent and loving people, and, despite some resentment towards the new stepfather on the part of the son - and, more subtly, on the mother's part, too - they are coping well. But a wildcard is thrown into their existence in the form of a still-living ancestor, his long dead but ever-present wife, his tough, ingenious, feisty secretary and their cheerfully unscrupulous, steadfast lawyer. Their meeting changes everything, revealing that the boy, currently pursuing a perfectly conventional college education, is chosen for a destiny of which he never would have conceived.

The future and past are strongly entwined in this novel, and the parallel plot introduces us to a woman who was raped and murdered after seeing her children killed by Yankee soldiers during the American Civil War. Her desire for revenge extends beyond the grave, and beyond sanity, decency or maternal love.

Enter our intrepid family of assorted heroes, determined to set right what went wrong hundreds of years ago, and has been going wrong ever since.

Themes of war, peace, slavery and prejudice are touched upon as the plot progresses, and themes of loyalty, courage and love are ever-present. There is abundant humour and much tragedy (I challenge you to read this book with dry eyes, or without laughing out loud). But the most powerful and abiding theme of the novel is a demonstration of forgiveness and reconciliation that, to my mind, transcends humanity and approaches the sublime.

Despite Vanessa's 'first novel' status, its authorship displays confidence and mastery. A convincing dual plot line, much suspense, lively attention to detail, exceptionally realistic dialogue and a refreshingly honest take on human emotion kept me enthralled and increasingly breathless from the very first page to the very last. Don't let this one pass you by.