I was stunned to see this book's rating. It is one of the best books I have read in months. The writing is deceptively simple and deft....similar to Graham Greene's style.

The "Ghost" is an English ghostwriter of "has-been" celebrity biographies. He takes on (for a very generous sum) this hurried assignment of an unfinished book about a recently retired English Prime Minister, a character closely modeled on Tony Blair. The rewrite and completion is difficult with elements of urgency, mystery and, possibly, danger, for the writer.

The characters of the "ghost", the P.M. his wife and his assistant are adroitly exposed. We are quickly gifted with an insider's glimpse of what would have been, should have been and could have been, actually never was. The outsiders' "truth" was merely clever "spin".

The dreary, wintry, Chappaquidick itself lends a mood of isolation and nothing-as-it-seems disquiet.

For me, the ending was shocking, but had certainly been foreshadowed. I have touted this book to all my friends and cannot understand why it isn't on bestseller lists.

The book took over a hundred pages before there was any hint of a plot. When it came it was petty drab and only a faint copy of real life political events. The attempts at humour were just not funny.
I enjoyed his novel 'Munich' but this was really poor - even the bit where the narrator is sleeping with the PM's wife!