The House on Tradd Street

Title: The House on Tradd Street

Author: Karen White

Publisher: New American Library

Copyright Date: 2008

Print Date: March 2009

ISBN: 9781607512578

Pages: 672 (Large Print)

Series: 1st of the Melanie Middleton/Tradd Street books.

Book Description (from dust jacket):

Practical-minded Realtor Melanie Middleton hates to admit — even to herself — that she can see ghosts. But she’s going to have to accept it, because an old man she met just days ago has died, leaving Melanie his historic Tradd Street home, complete with housekeeper, a dog, and a family of ghosts anxious to tell her something....

Enter Jack Trenholm, a gorgeous writer obsessed with unsolved mysteries. He has reason to believe that some diamonds that went missing from the Confederate treasury a century ago are hidden in Melanie's home. So he decides to charm the new tenant, only to discover that suddenly he is the smitten one.

But it turns out that Jack’s search has caught the attention of a possibly malevolent ghostly presence. Now, Jack and Melanie need to unravel a mystery of passion, heartbreak, and even murder. And they must hurry... for an evil force — either dead or alive — lies in wait.

Comments:

First, the author has some group discussion questions available here. This is a Word document.

Steve (on J. Kaye's Book Blog) read and gave a very positive review of The Girl of Legare Street. He also mentioned that it is a second book.

I prefer to read books in order, so I placed a hold on the first book (The House on Tradd Street) from the local library. I was slow about getting to it and I had to return it and check it out becuase of other library patrons requesting it. ::sigh:: Now it's nearly a week overdue. Good thing I'm exempt from overdue fines. I was determined to read it before returning it.

It had quite a bit of description at first. A lot of description has an unfortunate tendency to distract me, but the amount lessened once the house named in the title had been fully revealed. That's really my main issue with the actual story, and it hardly amounts to anything.

Unfortunately, the only copy my library has of this book is Large Print. And I have plenty of complaints about that. Normally I'm okay with large print; I don't need it, but it doesn't really bother me. Whoever was responsible for the typography and layout this time, though...horrible. The lines were too close together and at times 4+ words would string together so I had to focus to distinguish where one started and the next ended. All of this resulted in my eyes straining and difficulty starting the book. Grrr...

Eventually I adjusted, and enjoyed the story. Melanie has a lot of issues, but her resulting personality quirks and defensiveness are certainly understandable. She does go through some personal growth while trying to solve the Tradd Street house's mysteries. I liked her, and Jack, a couple other secondary characters. And I've placed a hold on the next book (I'm in queue though, so...)