The Seer of Shadows by Avi

There is something fun about a good ghost story. A ghost is a kind of puzzle in literature. They represent unfinished business and hidden nefarious deeds. I love it. It's a little strange to me that they've fallen out of vogue, but I haven't seen too many written just lately. This one, by Avi, is set during the height of spiritism's popularity in 1872 New York City.

Horace Carpetine is fascinated by the science of photography. Accordingly, this enterprising 14 year old gets himself apprenticed to a somewhat dubious photographer: Mr. Middleditch. Mr. Middleditch is lazy but also a good teacher. Horace learns to set up the glass plates and how to develop the negatives and prints. In fact the only thing he hasn't learned to do is snap the shots himself.

All this changes when a high society lady in mourning appears to arrange a photograph of herself for her dead daughter's grave. Mr. Middleditch immediately develops a plan using double exposures to create the image of the daughter's ghost. A hoax, in short.

Things quickly get out of hand and there is more going on than it appears. Are the images a hoax, or a real ghost after all?

This was a good, fast paced book. Chapters were short and first person narration helped the creation of suspense. While this is clearly a ghost story primarily, it also tackles some of the contemporary issues surrounding slavery.