Book Review: 'The Anonymous Girl' by Holy Ghost Writer

The Anonymous Girl by Holy Ghost Writer (HGW) is the sequel to That Girl Started Her Own Country (review here). The first novel in this series is The Sultan of Monte Cristo, a contemporary follow-up to Alexandre Dumas' 19th-century masterpiece. Sultan followed the further adventures of Edmond Dantes, Mercedes, and Haydee; That Girl switched the scenery to the 21st century, following the adventures of a descendant of Dantes and his mistress Raymee.

At least one other volume of the series - The Sovereign of Monte Cristo, which I have read - takes place in the 19th century on an American plantation. Quite frankly, I'm not entirely sure what order the entire series is meant to be read in, but Sultan definitely comes first.

The protagonist of The Anonymous Girl is Zaydee, and she's still in the process of starting her own country. She doesn't know she's a descendant of Edmond Dantes and Raymee, but she seems to be edging closer to the truth about her heritage. She's also connected somehow to a secret society called the Sovereign Order of Monte Cristo. Like the previous book, this one hints at conspiracy theories, but very little is revealed. I keep hoping the next installation will tie things together in a neat package.

Within this fictional world, Zaydee may be the true identity of the fictional character Lisbeth Salander. Steig Larsson, in this fictional world, is a pen name of U.S. journalist named Steve Larson, and Steve is a former lover of Zaydee's. This volume introduces a new wrinkle to the story, though: Zaydee has an identical twin sister named Liz. Steve didn't realize they were two different people even though he had relationships with both of them - so, chances are, Lisbeth Salander is based on some characteristics of both sisters.

This time around, Liz is extremely concerned for Steve's safety, but Zaydee seems convinced he's safe but has been taken into some kind of custody for his own protection. This is the first time the sisters have spoken in several years.

Speaking of custody, Zaydee is still residing in a federal prison in Florida. She's getting increasingly fed up with the criminal justice system, and she uses her superior hacking skills to get some sweet revenge on a couple of FBI bozos. These scenes are typical of the wicked humor throughout these stories, some of what makes them so fun and enjoyable.

Zaydee has really grown on me as a character, partly because she's so smart and competent, and partly because in some ways she resembles her famous ancestor The Count. She plays fast and loose with the American legal system, but you can't help but root for her dream of starting her own micro-nation with mostly women in all the important positions of state.

A new character in this volume is Remey, the heir of a biotech company whose father is working on a transhumanist project involving manipulating the human genetic code and furthering evolution at a greatly sped-up rate. Zaydee throws a spanner in the company's works, much to the chagrin of Remey's father. Remey takes Zaydee's side, turning his back on his family and his connections to a second secret society, Skull and Bones. Remey's character is well-written because when he comes into Zaydee's life on one of her excursions outside prison walls, it's unclear whether he's going to be an asset or a liability to her. By the end of the novel he seems to be trustworthy, but there's a bit of mystery to his character.

This fast-paced series continues to draw me in, and I look forward to reaching the end and having some answers to the questions raised by the secret societies and the exact nature of the link between the present day and the Count of Monte Cristo's time. I tended to take the series a little too seriously at first. You have to have fun with it. It's like a fun, breezy Dan Brown thriller.

"Holy Ghost Writer" is the pen name of an undisclosed author. The person who discovers his or her true identity has the opportunity to win a $1,000 prize. To enter, one has to e-mail a guess to prize AT sultanofmontecristo DOT com.

I purchased this book with my own funds from Barnes and Noble.

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Erinyes by George Saoulidis. $4.99 from Smashwords.com
When a sheltered teenager starts noticing a hazy face following her in her photographs, she begins to investigate an urban legend. But will she uncover the truth when she gets in trouble with a technology corporation, when an enigmatic hacker starts telling her conspiracy theories and when the hazy face becomes all too real and starts chasing her non-stop?

'That Girl Started Her Own Country' by Holy Ghost Writer

In January, when I read The Sultan of Monte Cristo by Holy Ghost Writer*, I didn't quite know what to make of the modern sequel to Alexandre Dumas' classic The Count of Monte Cristo (which I also read in January of this year). Recently, when the author approached me on Goodreads about reading the sequel, That Girl Started Her Own Country, I didn't know what to expect.

I was pleasantly surprised by That Girl Started Her Own Country; I really enjoyed it. It appears to be only loosely linked to Sultan - the main character, Zaydee, is the great-granddaughter of Raymee, an original Holy Ghost Writer (HGW) character introduced in Sultan. Early in That Girl, Zaydee is arrested and taken in federal custody in the United States. She won't reveal her real name, and lets the authorities believe she's royalty from another country (a very Count of Monte Cristo thing to do). She intends to become just that - the sovereign of her own micronation, which will be largely a gynecocracy.

It's strongly suggested that Zaydee is the real-life inspiration for Lisbeth Salander in Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy that starts with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. HGW makes mention of time Zaydee has spent in psychiatric institutions; since this is the reader's first introduction to Zaydee, it appears that HGW assumes the reader is familiar with Lisbeth's story (which includes psychiatric hospitalization) and can make the connection. Zaydee also uses the nickname "Pippi Longstocking," which is likely another reference to Lisbeth, who is sometimes thought to be an adult version of the beloved children's book character. I am a bit of a disadvantage here as a reader, since I haven't read any of Larsson's novels. (I did read the summary of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo on Wikipedia, though.)

Larsson himself becomes a character in the novel; he's Zaydee's former boyfriend, a journalist who wrote the Millennium books under a Swedish pseudonym, but who is actually an American named Steve Larson. In this novel, he's investigating the Bilderberg Group (a favorite topic of conspiracy theorists, or individuals we might categorize by the less-pejorative term "proponents of non-mainstream theories"), and Zaydee is giving him false leads so that his real investigation does not endanger his life and his work.

Granted, this novella suffers from some of the same faults as its predecessor: HGW gives us tantalizing bits of information, but those hints don't necessarily get fully explained by the end of the novel. The narrative doesn't always flow very smoothly, jumping from place to place and introducing new characters without much transition. That said, all of the various theories and characters who pop up in these books may very well be explained and unified by the time this series is concluded. I'm more confident in the author's ability to pull off an overarching storyline than I was when I'd only read Sultan.

I also happen to know from conversing with the author and glimpsing a later volume that the Sultan (the former Edmond Dantes), Haydee and Raymee make an appearance in a later volume.

The next book in the series is The Boy Who Played With Dark Matter.

Disclosure: The author provided a paperback copy of this book to me at no cost. The opinions presented here are entirely my own. I am an Amazon.com affiliate; if you make a purchase from Amazon after clicking through a link on my site, I'll earn a commission of a few cents.

*HGW sponsors an ongoing contest; whoever can guess his true identity wins $1,000!

This is an affiliate link:

Erinyes by George Saoulidis. $4.99 from Smashwords.com
When a sheltered teenager starts noticing a hazy face following her in her photographs, she begins to investigate an urban legend. But will she uncover the truth when she gets in trouble with a technology corporation, when an enigmatic hacker starts telling her conspiracy theories and when the hazy face becomes all too real and starts chasing her non-stop?