I'll be honest--I didn't bother ready the description for this book before picking it up. I was drawn to the author with fond memories of The Thirteenth Tale, so in my eyes she could do no wrong. 
 If you read the description here, that covers 85% of the story. I supposed since I had zero idea what happens, I was a little more engaged than most. 
 But there's a lot of introduction here. There's a lot of background story, and the actual story doesn't begin until the end. We learn of William Bellman's rise to power: His "bad boy" reputation as a teenager; his uncle taking him under his wing at the mill; his marriage to a beautiful girl. And it's all feel-good things, and it's entirely too much. 
 By the time we get to the meat of the story--the actual Bellman & Black--it felt like things had started, though we're 200 pages in. Even then, there's not much here. Bellman is super-successful, and where the heck is this supposed ghost? 
 I'm in love with the jacket, though. (Soft touch with gritty matte lamination? Perfect.)