JUNIPER WILES AND THE GHOST GIRLS

Reviewed by Steven H Silver

Charles de Lint introduced former actress turned ghost whisperer Juniper Wiles in the 2021 novel named for the character. After solving the murder in the first novel, Juniper has no desire to continue working as a detective, let alone a paranormal detective. Unfortunately for her, Jilly Coppercorn, her friends, and the universe in general have different plans for Juniper. The novel opens with Juniper being introduced to Captain Sam Cray, the head of the Newford Police Department's Paranormal Investigations Task Force. Christy Riddell has brought her to Cray because he feels that her ability to see and communicate with ghosts could be handy to Cray. Unfortunately, Cray and Juniper get off on the wrong foot, especially after Juniper sees the ghosts of seven young women in one of the department's holding cells.

Despite Juniper's desire to lead a normal life, far from the spotlight that followed her when she was a television star, she feels that she needs to help the ghost girls gain closure. The fact that none of them can speak complicates the issue, but Juniper is sure she can figure out a way around that. She also finds herself approached by Duncan Fairweather, who is concerned about his missing sister, Daisy, and wants Juniper's help finding her. Initially believing that Duncan is merely a fan who has conflated her television persona with real life, she quickly realizes he is actually a character from The Kingsmoor Chronicles, a popular fantasy series by Colin Bishop, which makes him, and his sister, an Eadar. Despite his stalking of Juniper, she finds herself drawn to his case, but more for Daisy's safety rather than to help Duncan.

Juniper finds herself pulled further into the worlds of ghosts and Eadar as the investigation begins, with Jilly Coppercorn's group of friends, particularly Christiana, Christy Riddell's otherworldly sister. acting as her guide. Juniper seems to fit in well their the group's mentality, except she and Sam Cray are at loggerheads and she makes it clear that what she is doing is in spite of him, rather than to help him. Everything Cray does seems almost designed to annoy Juniper and it only hardens her against him. Furthermore, when Juniper comes up against truly dark supernatural forces, she demonstrates that she also has a dark side which she has kept hidden from everyone, possibly including herself. It gives her character, and the series, an edge that many of de Lint's Newford novels lack, even as they have also tackled dark subjects.

Juniper Wiles and the Ghost Girls offers an expansion to Newford in both the types of magic that exist in the city and in the feel of Jilly Coppercorn's community. While Juniper Wiles still feels like a tangential addition to Jilly's friend group, she clearly belongs in it and through Christiana provides them with a new way of harnessing that magic to their ends. Juniper also offers a darker expression of the magic that permeates their world and gives the group a member who is willing to meet the forces of evil on their own turf.

Although Sam Clay does not come across well in Juniper Wiles and the Ghost Girls, the novel does give an explanation for some of his behavior toward Juniper. De Lint originally introduced him in a short story, "Newford Spook Squad," which appeared in the 2004 anthology Odder Jobs, a collection of Hellboy short stories. De Lint includes this story with the novel to provide additional background (it was also reprinted in de Lint's collections, Riding Shotgun and Muse and Reverie.

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