Picture Perfect

A novel of Historical Fiction? A Ghost Story? A Romance? This book is another entry in the cross-genre category. Picture the Dead is a novel by Adele Griffin and illustrated by Lisa Brown, set primarily in Boston during the Civil War. The main character Jennie has just suffered the loss of her fiancee Will to the war, and is living a miserable existence with his family, who are also her Aunt and Uncle and serve as her guardians. The one bright spot is Will's brother Quinn who has come back from the war injured, and is slowly recovering. Jennie becomes convinced that the ghost of Will is haunting her, and becomes involved with a photographer who claims to capture images from the Spirit World. What follows is as much of a mystery as it is a ghost story as Jennie struggles to understand who she can trust and what really happened to Will and Quinn. I wouldn't say that I disliked this book, but I didn't love it. It was OK. Jennie has an odd habit of kleptomania that is never really explained, and made me like her a little less as a person. At times it was hard to empathize with her, but I kept trying. This might be a good book to read for this month, if you're looking for a  little spookiness with some history thrown in for good measure.