Book Stop Corner

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“A picture is a secret about a secret, the more it tells you the less you know.”





Ellen Crosby, an American authors, pens her new book in the Sophie Medina series, Ghost Image, where Sophie Media, a photo journalist, finds her best friend-cum-Franciscan dead in the middle of a holy church, followed by the revelation behind an age old mystery related to a particular kind of seed and plant which is believed to be very extinct, little did she knew that her friend's discovery would even shake up the whole political world and other beneficiaries from D.C to London.




Synopsis:

When international photojournalist Sophie Medina finds Brother Kevin Boyle, a Franciscan friar and controversial environmentalist, dead in the magnificent gardens of a Washington, DC monastery, she is sure her friend was murdered. Shortly before he died, Kevin told Sophie he was being stalked, possibly because he uncovered a botanic discovery potentially worth millions of dollars. Left with few clues to his secret, Sophie is determined to figure out who killed Kevin.

Beginning with a key that leads to a priceless original seventeenth-century encyclopedia of plants, Sophie leaps into an international treasure hunt following a trail that begins in the US Capitol and eventually leads to London and the English countryside. Before long Sophie suspects Kevin's murderer may have been someone who knew him well. With time running out and a suspect list that includes the world's leading botanical experts and political royalty from both sides of the Atlantic, can Sophie solve the two-hundred-year-old mystery before Kevin's killer finds her?

A tale of greed and betrayal involving politicians, diplomats, European royalty, and a century-old monastery, Ghost Image is filled with political intrigue, history, and an international high-stakes race against a killer that will keep you guessing until the very last page.


Sophie Media is a professional photographer who is hired by a common friend of hers to shoot his engagement as well as the wedding, which happens to be the wedding of Washington D.C's ambassador's daughter, Yasmin. On the night of the wedding party, Sophie was invited by the ambassador to photograph all the guests belonging from high political ranks to billionaires. Sophie learns from her friend, Kevin, a Franciscan, that he has unlocked a great mystery about a 200 year old encyclopedia of plants. Unfortunately, on the very next day of the party, Sophie finds him dead on the holy grounds of the monastery, followed by Sophie's journey from D.C to London where she finds this book and the original one too and some rare and extinct species of seeds, little did she knew knew that many high profile people are after that encyclopedia, and if they find any hurdle on their way to find that book, they have the power to kill.


The writing is polished and certainly the author knows how to spin her mystery with webs of misdirection and twists and danger. One best thing of this book is that the author introduces her readers with all the key characters briefly right in the begining of the first chapter, and these characters' definitely sticks to the readers minds when they start playing their respective roles. The prose is very articulate and the narrative is kept engaging to the very core.

The pacing is also very good and the way she have sketched the characters by drawing in with a bit of realism, helps the readers to immediately connect with them even though some are layered with lots of confusion and grey shades. The main character, Sophie, is a strong heroine, who is very independent and immediately jumps into action when she finds Kevin's dead body. Since this is the second book in this series, it still can be read as a standalone, as the author pours the back story of Sophie's previous life in London and about her marital life once again through this story. Sophie's POV leaves a lot of room for readers' own perspective and judgement.

The mystery that starts spinning it's web right from the very first page of the book which seeps through the minds of readers like a drug. Moreover, the author skillfully layered the mystery with lots of adrenaline-rushing actions that easily keeps the readers on their edges. The theory or the concept that the author used to build up her mystery is quite enlightening to read about, especially it proves to be very captivating to read about 200 year old mystery behind plants, herbs and their behaviors dating back almost to the 17th century.

The background of the story is vividly captured in the storyline be it the cold gardens of DC or the posh streets of London. Overall, it's a packed, tight and gripping mystery that somehow managed to unravel my mind.

Verdict: Mystery lovers will appeal to this book very much!

Courtesy: Thanks to the author, Ellen Crosby, for giving me an opportunity to read and review her book. 
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Author Info:
Ellen Crosby is the author of 2 mysteries featuring photojournalist Sophie Medina: MULTIPLE EXPOSURE and GHOST IMAGE (Scribner, April, 2015). She has also written six books in the Virginia wine country mystery series featuring winemaker Lucie Montgomery, and MOSCOW NIGHTS, a standalone mystery published in the UK. Before writing fiction, Crosby was a freelance reporter for The Washington Post, Moscow correspondent for ABC Radio News, and an economist at the US Senate. After living overseas for many years, she now lives in the Washington, DC suburbs of northern Virginia.  
Visit her here 


Book Purchase Links:

• Amazon US 
• Amazon India