A review by zmull
The Ghost by Robert Harris

3.0

The Ghost is a thinly fictionalized payback for Tony Blair's ten years of selling out to the US. In it the Blair figure is facing war crimes charges in the Hague, a wave of bombings in London, and betrayal of former collegues. The novel reads like a purging of years of pent-up anger at the former PM. It's what gives the book its fire. The plot, a ghostwriter is hired to replace the recently murdered (?) aide who had been working on the PM's memoirs. Nothing about the mystery rises above the standard blah, but the twist at the end is an incredibly personal slap at Blair. It's breathtaking in its viciousness. It makes all the fumbling around looking for dodgy clues almost worth it. Anyone willing to write a book where President Bush is indicted by the International Criminal Court? I'd probably read that one too, since we're never going to see it happen in the real world.