Ghosts in the Heart (Michael Keller)

Title: Ghosts in the Heart

Author: Michael Keller

Released: 2012

Rating: 3.5/5

Basic Plot: Can a man spend much of his life in love with a woman he has never actually met, can never meet? To Alexander Mckenzie, a chillingly aloof San Francisco Police Detective, the answer is yes. Since his adolescence he has been consumed by the image of Mireille Marchand, a beautiful young French actress whose tragic death at the beginning of her career has never ceased to haunt him. Then, when a savagely violent confrontation with a brutal robber brings him to the edge of death while shredding the very fabric of time and space, he is seemingly given a unique opportunity to alter the course of fate. Or is it all just another desperate dream?
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Many Grammar and Punctuation Problems
I have a BA in English with a Specialization in Creative Writing. This means I am very attuned to mistakes in how something in written and not just the plot holes that can arise in any given work. In this book, Keller makes various mistakes that are very simple. Bad thing is that there can be a ton of these problems in a single paragraph (sometimes repeats of the same problem). I understand that not even the greatest authors can have zero typos in a finished work (I think The Terminal Man by Michael Crichton had two or three). But the thing is that there were hardly any typos in those books and not in the quantities found in this book. I'm surprised that I controlled myself enough not to make many notes in my copy of the book (thank you, Michael, for giving me a free signed copy). Common mistakes were ellipses, placement of commas, and various spacing issues.

The Love Dilemma
This novel revolves around the fact that Alexander is sent back in time (or to a parallel dimension or something timey-wimey) and is given the object of his desires. He is put in a place and time where he can act out his wishes or not. The fact that he doesn't immediately go for Mireille says something very good about our hero. He realizes that the age difference is a thing and just because Mireille doesn't know, doesn't mean it'd be right if he had sex with her.

Sci-Fi Elements
This novel is  a romance. A guy finally gets the chance to be with a woman that he would normally never have the chance to be with. But this novel also contains sci-fi elements too. It has Alexander going back in time and/or going into another dimension. Myself, I think he went back in time and his spirit/soul was just put into a younger version of himself (a la Hot Tub Time Machine [2010]). The reason for this are never explained in the novel. It's more of a "oh, this happens and don't question it so the plot can move forward" thing. And, in this instance, it works. It's not important to know why as keeping Mireille alive takes center stage. Now if there were ever to come an explanation about it, that'd be great but not needed to enjoy the novel.

Final Thoughts
Michael Keller is a personal friend of mine. Somehow we met on Twitter and have been friends ever since. He offered to send me Ghosts in the Heart for free. Since I don't have any way to view books on my computer he sent my a physical copy. Mind you we had been talking for a little bit before he did this. I don't offer my address to just anyone online (that's stupid and dangerous). He signed my copy with:

To Jashy,
Who puts the
Wit in Twitter
Best wishes
Michael

So getting the book and starting to read it filled me with dread. All my reviews before this one have been of works by people I have never met (or are even dead). Writing an honest review of a friend's book was hard to say the least. I want to give my readers/fans my real opinions but I am also afraid of harming a friend's feelings.