GHOST TEARS
A Novel

      “In Helen Lamberton Gates’ novel Ghost Tears, Delia Duval and her husband, Jean-Paul, plunge into a Santa Fe-style mystery involving a haunted house in Tesuque, the murder of a teenage girl, and a stranger who wishes the couple harm. The plot is complicated by Delia’s discovery of a family secret that upends her understanding of herself. Gates is originally from Washington, DC, but raised her children in Santa Fe, the climate and culture of which she relays through Delia, an outsider to Santa Fe who is charmed by its rustic yet exotic qualities. Delia can be patiently observant one moment and harshly judgmental the next—a habit she shares with Jean-Paul, a Frenchman who has awakened Delia’s lustier side after the death of her first husband, with whom she shared a sexually tamer relationship. Gates takes her time with the story, revealing the plot in tantalizing bits and pieces.”
     
      —Pasatiempo, The Santa Fe New Mexican