Ghosts in the Snow

Ghosts in the Snow (2004) Tamara Siler Jones

Dubric sees ghosts. But not all ghosts, just the ghosts of the murdered.

Cursed by the Goddess Malanna after his wife’s murder forty-three summers before, Dubric had long struggled to ignore the horrid images of wrongful death.
…
He often wondered if he solved their murders to find justice for their deaths, or merely to get the spirits out of his sight. He hoped it was for justice, insisted in his heart it was for justice, but on this blustery morning in late winter he was far from certain.

The murders are brutal, and described in a bit more detail than I like, but for the most part it’s a description of the bodies after they are already dead.

But Dubric is a good man (albeit a stubborn one) and he has a helpful (if mostly young) staff to assist him.

“Women. Too damn opinionated and not a lick of sense to back it up.”

Dubric continued to trudge forward and flex his aching hands while Lars and Dien bantered.

“And to think you’ve got all daughters,” Lars teased, grinning. “Think they’d like to hear they have no sense? I’m happy to tell them for you.”

Dien laughed. “I’m just talking about women in general. My girls are a different matter entirely.”

Dien leaned his chair forward again. “Might be good for the boy to serve a duty shift, and it’s not going to get much safer than guarding a roomful of sleeping girls. He’ll be fine.”

Dubric looked at Otlee’s eagerness and thought of Bacstair’s hope for his son. Despite the worry clenching his insides, he said,

“Grab yourself a blanket and be sure and take your sword. You are guarding Miss Nella’s door until dawn.” “Thanks!” Dubric smiled at Otlee’s exuberance. “Let us see how excited you are in the morning, after the long night ahead of you. It is almost midnight and the girls will sleep until five bell or so. You should be quite bored. Just stay awake and do not let anyone through their door. No books. Pay attention.”

One of the things I especially liked was that war lay in the past, and that magic was used in that war, to the detriment of the magic users. Since Dubric is not a magic user, we don’t get a lot of detail about how magic works, but there are some very interesting hints.

I also liked the magical mirror Dubric has, and how the reasons for it’s invention were immediately ignored by people being people, until the inventor said he destroyed it, rather than allowing his device to be subverted.

It’s an interesting if dark book.
Rating: 7.5/10

Published by Bantam

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