I have just published my wife’s book on Amazon as a paperback and ebook — The French Woman’s Ghost by B.J. Van Horn. She passed away last fall and I completed the book for her—along with our daughter Rebecca (also a BAIPA member) and fellow writer Eva.
This story began with a hike up Ring Mountain in Marin County, north of San Francisco. My wife BJ and I found a large boulder embedded in the hillside with a crack that looked just like a dagger. There’s a photo of BJ sitting next to that rock. A story had to emerge from that cracked boulder, and she wanted it to be a ghost story. It took a number of years for the cast of fascinating characters to emerge and tell their stories.
After a decade of developing the manuscript, the story was within a hair’s breadth of completion when BJ unexpectedly passed away (in October of 2023). To honor her memory, the rest of us in her writing group (husband Mike, daughter Becky, and fellow writer Eva) decided to finish the project and publish it. And now here it is: BJ’s ghost story, finalized by her three ghost writers.
Here’s the book description from the back cover:
A light-hearted murder mystery, romance, and ghost story set in 19th century England
Edmund Symme, a stuffy London barrister, finds himself increasingly fed up with his every-day cares and decides to get away to his country estate in Yorkshire. There, he is confronted with visions of a beautiful woman who addresses him by name. When she appears in his library, he’s sure he’s going mad. Worse, he finds himself enjoying the ethereal presence. She’s French, she knows wine, she smells of gardenia, she’s jealous, and she wants him to avenge her murder. She seems to know more than he does about his own family.
To complicate matters, Remy, the estate’s housekeeper (whom Edmund dismisses as “just a servant”) also sees visions of the ghostly woman. Employer and employee are therefore thrown together in uncharted territory.
Is this ghost more than a figment of their imaginations? Can they believe her story of murder? How do their long-ago ancestors fit into her tale? Can Edmund shake himself out of his traditional male attitude to recognize his housekeeper as a vibrant, intelligent woman?
And what about the ominous poignard en pierre—the dagger in stone?
An enjoyable tale for romance, history and mystery aficionados.
Available as paperback and ebook. Find the book here.
