Alexander C. Juden’s STALKING GHOSTS is the third in a series featuring John Griffin, the first two being Red Tiger Hunting and Crossing Darkness. This one has frequent references to events in the first two books, and it is probably advisable to read them first, but STALKING GHOSTS can stand alone as its own story without too much confusion.
John Griffin is a World War I veteran twice over: an American who volunteered for the British armed forces, was blinded by a sniper, and got sent home to America—where he recovered his sight. Feeling that he betrayed his comrades when he was sent home, he re-enlisted in the American Marine Corps and served until the end of the war. But survivor’s guilt still haunts him in the form of the ghost of his old comrade, Tippy Frederickson—who was killed in front of him in the trenches and now visits him regularly, encouraging him to die. After the war, political plots and schemes by war financiers and German intelligence agents left him even further traumatized. Now he’s being sent by Churchill with letters to Woodrow Wilson, among other American politicians, and he’s determined to use his time in America to track down and kill the man who tried to restart the war, dodge the various factions trying to murder him, and protect the people he loves.
This is a complex and engaging book, with multiple plots, nonstop action, daring escapes, and clever stratagems (luring English attackers into an Irish nationalist bar was a particularly entertaining touch). Griffin’s vigorous adventures on the outside match his internal struggles of deep self-hatred and survivor’s guilt, personified by the ghosts that haunt him. Furthermore, these two battles reinforce and help resolve each other in complicated and realistic ways.
The historical background is well-researched and full of real people, ranging from those as well-known as Churchill, Wilson, and J. Edgar Hoover to lesser-known (but possibly even more remarkable) characters like the gangster “Wag” McDonald and the tough, intelligent women who ran the Endell Street Military Hospital. (However, the footnotes that let the reader know which characters are real and provide references for them are sometimes a bit intrusive; they don’t include enough information beyond “this is a real historical figure” to be truly helpful, and perhaps should have been either expanded or omitted.) There’s plenty of personality here, even among the fictional people, and very human motivations; even the most minor characters are well-drawn and full of life. All in all, it’s a lively and vigorous story that should appeal to fans of both gritty action-adventure and immersive historical novels.
An engaging and action-filled mystery, Alexander C. Juden’s STALKING GHOSTS believably and vividly portrays the complicated mind of a man struggling with trauma while keeping the reader in suspense until the final resolution.
~Catherine Langrehr for IndieReader