Joplin's Ghost

By: Tananarive Due

Narrated by: Lizan Mitchell

Bram Stoker Award finalist Tananarive Due crafts chilling tales of suspense.

In Joplin's Ghost, 24-year-old R&B phenomenon Phoenix Smalls is on the cusp of fame and fortune. But she is haunted by the spirit of Jazz legend Scott Joplin. After a series of sultry, erotic encounters with the ghost, and with the pressures of stardom closing in on her, Phoenix begins to fear for her life and career.

Check out more from Tananarive Due right here.©2005 Tanarive Due (P)2005 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

"The story is also a vehicle for Due's admirable illustration of the musician's dilemma: how to be true to a gift in the face of pressure to create what will sell. Authors face such dilemmas as well; fortunately, Due shows herself true to her own powerful gift." (Publishers Weekly)
"Haunting." (The Washington Post's Book World)

Could have been better

The premise of the story was interesting, but it could have used better editing to make the story build faster.

Surprised

I almost didn't listen to it because I thought it wouldn't be ghostly enough for my taste, but I loved every minute of it

Good Book-Didn't like the narrator

I realize that the characters in this book are African American and so is the narrator, but does she have to make all white people sound like idiots? Her voices for characters didn't match their description. Her accent for the cousin Gloria was terrible and made her sound like a cartoon character not a young jewish woman. I think the narration took away from the story line...and I love Tananarive Due Books.

The payoff is worth it

I had a wildly uneven experience with this book. It has some of the same problems that I have with most novels that try to tell two interconnected stories, one historical, one contemporary. The historical story was easy to fall into, but I kept losing interest during the contemporary timeline. That might be all me, rather than the book, as I have very little interest in 1990's pop music or the lives of fictional 90's pop stars. I was also a little uncomfortable with (the mercifully few) explicit sex scenes and some dubious consent issues. The payoff toward the end was worth persevering for, though, and the prose lifted the story a little.

I think it was the audio performance by Lizan Mitchell that really made this book for me - her pace, her voices, her emotion, even the way she changed the whole persona of the narrator based on who's POV is being revealed - were all outstanding.

The ability to pull readers inside story

I loved it all I hope she keeps writing forever!!! I’m a fan for life at this point lovely