Ghost talkers

Kowal's latest is a dazzling alternative history set during the Great War. In the summer of 1916, American heiress Ginger Stuyvesant is engaged to British intelligence officer Benjamin Hartshorne and working in France as a medium in the top secret Spirit Corps, a force that gathers intelligence from fallen soldiers at the moment of death. It is grisly, exhausting work that puts the souls of the mediums in danger of becoming permanently separated from their physical forms, and it is made more dangerous by the discovery that the German army is not only aware of the Spirit Corps but has a double agent assisting them. When Ben is murdered, it falls to Ginger to help him move on by finding his killer and discovering the traitor in the corps while keeping her soul intact. Romance, action, and intrigue propel the plot from Kowal's compelling premise. Ginger's determination to do her duty in the face of lost love and senseless death and her eventual triumph will satisfy fans of Kowal's Glamourist Histories series as well as readers of Naomi Novik and Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan series.--Szwarek, Magan Copyright 2016 Booklist

In this entrancing alternate history, Kowal (the Glamourist Histories series) introduces the Spirit Corps, a group that communicates with recently killed soldiers to gather important wartime information. It's the summer of 1916, and American medium Ginger Stuyvesant works with the British Army at Le Havre to coordinate and lead spirit circles. When her intelligence officer fiancé, Capt. Benjamin Harford, uncovers a German plot to target the Spirit Corps and is sent to the front soon after, Ginger must use every power at her disposal to track down a traitor and protect the corps. Kowal's depiction of spiritualism is richly imagined, and its complications and consequences are thoughtfully considered. Her depiction of the Western Front includes diverse characters often neglected in wartime stories: the many people who help Ginger include women young and old, people of color, and disabled veterans, all of whom are dismissed by the British men in charge. The well-drawn characters and the story's gripping action and deep emotion will captivate readers. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

American Ginger Stuyvesant is able to channel the spirits of the dead. Her skills, along with those of other psychics, are being put to use by a special branch of the British Army known as the Spirit Corps during World War I. Working out of a base in Le Havre, Ginger leads one of several circles whose members take intelligence from deceased soldiers who report what they saw on the battlefields. One day a fighter checks in who has been killed by a British officer, not a German enemy. Ginger has a hard time getting her male superior officers to take her seriously, but she is tenacious as she pulls on the threads of a mystery that threatens the whole of the Spirit Corps. -VERDICT Hugo Award-winning Kowal ("The Glamourist" series) has a good feel for the era, creating a premise and setting that make this a refreshing historical fantasy.-MM © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.