{"id":7300,"date":"2018-06-18T06:39:34","date_gmt":"2018-06-18T10:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7300"},"modified":"2018-06-18T06:39:34","modified_gmt":"2018-06-18T10:39:34","slug":"paper-ghosts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7300","title":{"rendered":"*****Paper Ghosts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"photographer

photo: Chris Dorward, creative commons license<\/p><\/div>\n

Written by Julia Heaberlin \u2013 I just spent a week in Texas, including a family reunion in Waco, where Paper Ghosts<\/a><\/em> begins, and am happy to report that trip was nothing like this story, a creepy and deliciously entertaining battle of wits.<\/p>\n

Grace is twenty-four and obsessed with finding out what happened to her only sister Rachel, who disappeared when Grace was twelve. What ignited her search was finding a photograph of two ethereal girls taped to the bottom of their home\u2019s attic stairs.<\/p>\n

The photographer, Carl Feldman, was later tried and acquitted in another local woman\u2019s disappearance, although suspicions about him never went away.<\/p>\n

Heaberlin masterfully weaves this backstory through the narrative\u2014 enlightening, coloring, providing motivation. Diagnosed with dementia, the elderly Carl now lives in a halfway house run by Mrs. T. Grace poses as Carl\u2019s daughter to persuade Mrs. T to let her take him on a \u201cvacation.\u201d In reality, she plans to revisit places where three young women disappeared, hoping to break through the tattered veil of confusion that Carl pulls over himself. He\u2019s just lucid and insightful enough to know what Grace is up to, to go along with the deception, and to toy with her mercilessly.<\/p>\n

Grace\u2019s personal safety trainer has readied her to handle the tricks Carl might try. Most important, she\u2019s worked on conquering fear. You see pages from her childhood \u201csurvival notebook,\u201d which contained her strategies for conquering various fears, like spiders or ghosts. Charming, but more important, these entries show an organized determination that foreshadows the adult Grace will become.<\/p>\n

Mrs. T gives her ten days, at which time she absolutely must return Carl to the halfway house. Ten days in a car with a possible serial killer, in motel rooms at night, in situations where he may say who knows what? Carl is infinitely unpredictable. And sneaky.<\/p>\n

Around day four or five, you may wonder whether Heaberlin\u2019s inventiveness will run out, whether the diaristic recitation of their doings will wear thin. It never does. Her writing style is rich with metaphors tied to Carl\u2019s strong identity as a photographer. In his photos, his paper ghosts, much is revealed, and much is hidden.<\/p>\n

This risky road trip through a nightmare Texas doesn\u2019t deflect Grace from the fundamental question, what happened to Rachel? And does Carl even know? And if he doesn\u2019t, or if he\u2019s overtaken by dementia, will she ever find out? You keep turning pages to find out.<\/p>\n

This is the third missing-sister book I\u2019ve read recently, all strong. The others were Jenny Quintana\u2019s The Missing Girl<\/a><\/em> and Chris Whitaker\u2019s All the Wicked Girls<\/a><\/em>.
\n<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Julia Heaberlin \u2013 I just spent a week in Texas, including a family reunion in Waco, where Paper Ghosts begins, and am happy to report that trip was nothing like this story, a creepy and deliciously entertaining battle … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"*****Paper Ghosts - A creepy and deliciously entertaining battle of wits between a young woman and a suspected serial killer possibly responsible for the disappearance of her sister.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1335,52,40,126],"tags":[1337,678,412,1336,285,415],"class_list":["post-7300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-amateur-detective","category-crime","category-fiction","category-reading-2","tag-julia-heaberlin","tag-murder","tag-mystery","tag-paper-ghosts","tag-texas","tag-thriller"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1TK","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7300"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7302,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7300\/revisions\/7302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}