This is the last of the books I picked up at the Stone Mountain library sale on Saturday. I loved it!

Ghost Country is a radical departure from Paretzky’s V.I. Warshawski novels, although it stays with the gritty Chicago, urban/suburban tension that colors those works.

First of all, although Ghost Country is mysterious and strange, it isn’t a mystery, and it is about as far from horror as one can get. It’s more of a character exploration — what happens when the world does not turn out the way we expected it to? How do we behave? How do we cope?

The central characters in Ghost Country are a pair of sisters, one golden and perfect, the other (a dozen years younger) sallow and disappointing. Their mother and grandmother have both died or disappeared, and they were raised by an exacting and strict, wealthy, overachieving grandfather, and his cold fish housekeeper.

(Incidently, both sisters go to Smith. The golden & perfect one then goes on to law school, where she graduates 5th in her class, while the disappointing sister drops out.)

Grandpere is a neurosurgeon and powerhouse at a local hospital, where he torments a young psychiatric resident for his belief in therapy, not just administration of drugs. His is the flattest character, the only one where you don’t fully sense why they would act the way they do.

Memorable characters include a community of homeless women — a schizophrenic named Madeline, who sees visions of the Mother of God in a rusty crack in a wall near a fancy hotel; Luisa, an alcoholic opera diva who is in the midst of hitting rock bottom; and Starr, a mysterious mute who might be an ancient sumarian goddess with the power to heal. Also interesting are Becca, Luisa’s 13 year old niece; Dr. Hector Tammuz, a young resident who wants to help the homeless women; and Mrs Ephers, Grandpere’s housekeeper.

The characters make you keep thinking about them after the book is over.