Welcome, friend! You may have seen this one in my spooky season book list, but like ghosts and apparitions, it has disappeared from there. 😉 I was drawn to the premise — a party thrown in a maybe-haunted house! The glamorous cast and the blend of fact and fiction make this story stand out. Take a look at the synopsis of The Last Spirits of Manhattan below and then read on for my review:
John A McDermott | Goodreads
Based on a true story, this sparkling and witty novel whisks you to 1956 Manhattan, where famed director Alfred Hitchcock is hosting a star-studded party in an allegedly haunted house…only for the soiree to be interrupted by a ghostly party crasher.
After fleeing her mundane life in the Midwest, Carolyn Banks finds herself in her enigmatic great-aunts’ eerie mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Inside its crumbling façade, suspense director Alfred Hitchcock is throwing a party, gleefully informing his celebrity guests that the venue is supposedly haunted. It all seems like a fun gag, but Carolyn knows that the line between reality and the supernatural is dangerously blurred here.
Soon, the paranormal entities are mingling with guests like Charles Addams and Henry Fonda. As Carolyn grapples with romantic entanglements and ghostly encounters, she discovers long-buried family secrets, challenging her understanding of love, loyalty, and legacy. A striking mix of the haunting and the heartwarming, The Last Spirits of Manhattan is an unputdownable novel about a family reunion unlike any other, set against the bewitching backdrop of 1950s New York City.
The Last Spirits of Manhattan – Book Review
The Last Spirits of Manhattan is a unique novel — a wonderful mix of writing styles and perspectives that give the story real depth.
At its heart is Carolyn, a young woman uncertain about the life she wants but sure that she doesn’t want to settle down just yet. Her job in a store gives her a sense of purpose, though she knows she’s capable of more — only the world isn’t quite ready for ambitious women to lead. She has recently lost her mother and is feeling even more lost without her counsel. With her father’s permission, Carolyn comes to New York to visit her Aunt Bella for a few weeks. This is when she hears about the party in her great aunt’s house which is on the market to be sold soon. Bella does not want anything to do with the party and instead pushes Carolyn to be involved.
The title of the book becomes clear when Hitchcock hires an agency to find a haunted house for his party, none are to be found. Even the American Psychical Research Institute was consulted and the spectral experts there said that all ghost activity had ceased in Manhattan after World War II. With some luck, Pete hears about this old mansion and Bella rents it out for the night.
Most of the novel is the story of the night of the party – the famous guests, their conversations, the uninvited undead guests, their decades old squabbles. In the midst of all of this is the uncanny set up: Pete and his agency have hired actors and set up props to make the place feel haunted but they had not anticipated that there would be actual spirits lingering there. For most of them, it is their house afterall, and not everyone is happy with the strangers roaming there.
I loved the banter among the characters, and Carolyn’s chemistry with Pete added warmth and levity to the otherwise spectral setting.
Though the idea of encountering ghosts might sound eerie, the story’s tone is more reflective and humorous than frightening. The ghosts used to be people with their own likes and dislikes, hopes and dreams. Some of them succeeded at having a good life before they passed away while others had many regrets. Their presence adds to the chaos of Hitchcock’s glamorous gathering.
One of my favorite scenes was when Hitchcock, even while speaking to the spirits, refuses to believe they’re real — assuming it’s all Walt Disney’s doing! Those playful moments make the novel delightfully atmospheric rather than scary.
What I loved most, though, is that The Last Spirits of Manhattan draws from real history — the house, the party, even some of the people and ghosts were real. Author John A. McDermott beautifully blends truth and imagination, turning his family’s past into a richly layered story about connection, legacy, and the thin veil between the living and the dead. How lovely is that – to be able to interweave family history with fiction and bring it to a wider audience!
I found The Last Spirits of Manhattan to be a charmingly haunting story — less about fear and more about how the past lingers in unexpected ways. If you love stories that weave humor, history, and heart into the paranormal, this one’s a perfect autumn read.
Tomorrow, I’ll be chatting with John A. McDermott about the inspiration behind his ghostly party — and what it means to honor real lives through fiction. Don’t miss it!
Add this book to Goodreads or locate it at your local library, Libby, or bookstore.
Also check out: The Star and the Strange Moon.
Thank you for reading my thoughts! Many thanks to the publisher for a review copy of the book for my honest thoughts.
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