The House on Tradd Street by Karen White ISBN: 9780593335192
Series: Tradd Street #1
Published by Penguin on November 4, 2008
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery, Romance
Pages: 329
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The brilliant, chilling debut of Karen White's New York Times bestselling Tradd Street series, featuring a Charleston real estate agent who loves old houses--and the secret histories inside them.
Practical Melanie Middleton hates to admit she can see ghosts. But she's going to have to accept it. An old man she recently met has died, leaving her his historic Tradd Street home, complete with housekeeper, dog--and a family of ghosts anxious to tell her their secrets.
Enter Jack Trenholm, a gorgeous writer obsessed with unsolved mysteries. He has reason to believe that diamonds from the Confederate Treasury are hidden in the house. So he turns the charm on with Melanie, only to discover he's the smitten one...
It turns out Jack's search has caught the attention of a malevolent ghost. Now, Jack and Melanie must unravel a mystery of passion, heartbreak--and even murder.
Characters: 5, I didn’t connect with any of the characters. The MC has some distinct traits such that I could describe them to someone, but all the secondary characters were very flat and forgettable. And the MC’s inner tensions were resolved so easily that I wasn’t very invested in their arc.
Atmosphere: 5, I suspect that if I cared about South Carolinian architecture I might feel more immersed, but instead I felt pretty pushed out of the environment. The romantic and sexual tension has some problematic aspects, so that aspect of the story also wasn’t as immersive as I wanted. These might just be my personal taste.
Writing: 7, White has good pacing and a balance of action with description. If I’d been more invested in the story, my enjoyment would’ve been higher because her writing style was solid.
Plot: 5, despite being a paranormal mystery, this story was rather formulaic. It’s in the style of a cozy mystery, where everything falls into place and the majority of the tension is surface issues, but also the romance aspects were predictable (bad love triangle alert!). There were zero surprises, and the resolution of the mystery felt so drawn out that I lost interest entirely.
Intrigue: 4, I had to force myself to finish this. I should’ve DNFed it, but I’ve DNFed two books already this year and I struggle to give myself that permission. I only finished it, really, because it was an audiobook and thus easy to put on while I was doing other things.
Logic: 7, I didn’t catch any glaring plot holes, though there were a lot of very convenient things and a case of overpowered MC. I suppose all characters acted in accordance with their motives, but there was a slight overburdening of information. The setting is relatively contemporary (the days of Blackberries but not cell phones), so the world building was…well, what it was.
Enjoyment: 5, I wasn’t invested in the MC, and after about halfway through I wasn’t invested in the mystery, either. I didn’t feel drawn into the romance or the paranormal aspect. If surface-level paranormal mystery love-triangle-romance is your thing, you’ll probably like this better than I did, but for me it was very ‘meh’.
*Read for the Orilium Academy Magical Readathon Autumn Equinox and the Buzzword Readathon
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