Conrad makes it his afterlife's work to bring cocky Ryan down, with the help of the frat house's salty cook, "crazy" Miss Etta. The narrator, an affluent frat boy named Conrad Avery Sutton III, tells us right off that he's dead, murdered by fellow Gamma Chi Ryan Hutchins, a psychotic hiding behind a charming Big-Man-on-Campus veneer. Publishers Weekl圜larke's novel, subtitled "A Ghost's Story," is a winning comedy of collegiate (bad) manners, set at Louisiana State University.
(July) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information. He drives the plot over the top with portraits of hypocritical religious fanatics and unrestrained party animals, and into baby Grand Guignol territory with a swath of outlandish killings-but it all works as black farce of a high degree. She knows Conrad is still on Earth to protect hapless fraternity pledge Tucker Graham, who, like most of the world, sees Ryan as "a big, bright, rising star." It sounds a little like a sitcom, albeit an edgy one, but Clarke fashions a hilariously addictive yarn, with crackling prose and sharp observations that consistently entertain and surprise. Publishers WeeklyĬlarke's novel, subtitled "A Ghost's Story," is a winning comedy of collegiate (bad) manners, set at Louisiana State University.
Out for revenge, Conrad possesses an unsuspecting pledge's body so he can finish what Ryan started, steering them toward a depraved confrontation with a surprising outcome that will leave readers gasping. Make no mistake, the newly deceased Conrad is one angry ghost, and the object of his wrath is chapter president Ryan Hutchins, a "big, bright, rising star" who, in Conrad's view, is really "the darkest black hole you'll ever meet - and I'm not just saying that because he killed me." Conrad's ghostly ability to see all but be seen by no one (except Miss Etta, Gamma Chi's elderly cook, who is gifted with paranormal powers) confirms his suspicion that Ryan's dark hand has a wide reach, from beating his girlfriend, Maggie Meadows, to terrorizing Sarah Jane Bradford, a religious student who senses that Ryan must be stopped. But now, thanks to a brutal hazing incident at Louisiana State University's Gamma Chi fraternity, Conrad is dead - a nineteen-year-old spirit suddenly without an earthly body. Conrad had it pretty good in life - a Porsche, pretty girls, and a trust fund full of oil money.
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