Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free digital ARC of this book. This book is true to its title description. The reader won't be disappointed when reading this book.

Written accounts of the Civil War have been further enhanced by photographic documentation provided by Matthew Brady. In this historical fiction novel, Brady has sent an apprentice, Edward Moody, to photograph the carnage at Antietam in 1862. After viewing the photos of dead bodies and horse carcasses, woodcuts and other likenesses started to appear in newspapers. Why not raise up the dead through spiritual communication? Brokenhearted wives and mothers felt hopeless. Communicating with a lost son or husband by capturing his spirit could often promote inner peace.

In 1870, Edward Moody claimed to capture the ghost of a deceased loved one. A spectral image appeared in a photo created in his studio. Customers from all walks of life frequented his business in the hope of reconnecting with a shadowy loved one faintly appearing in the background. His fame spread despite the naysayers who tried to expose him as a fraud.

Abolitionist Senator James Garrett tried to placate wife Elizabeth by sitting for a spirit photo despite his abhorrence of Moody's methods. Elizabeth had been informed in writing, by Moody, that her son William, who died eighteen years ago, had communicated from the spirit world and she must sit for an immediate photo to be reunited with him. Development of the photo is troubling. In lieu of William's likeness, the shadowy image of a young woman appears. Moody knows her, but so does James Garrett. Garrett must obtain the negative, and soon.

"The Spirit Photographer: A Novel" by Jon Michael Varese is a novel about spirit photography, fact and fiction. A journey undertaken to the bayou interjects Reconstruction Era thinking, bounty hunting, and the practice of voodoo. For this reader, of greatest importance is continued recognition of all aspects of the Civil War Era through the medium of photography. An excellent Southern Gothic debut novel I highly recommend.

Thank you W. W. Norton & Company and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "The Spirit Photographer".