finally read this. loved it. he always excels at longer stories, and the characterization was great. i probably missed some cues somewhere because i was wrapped up in the story, but i was actually a bit surprised when i figured out what it was all building up to, much like mike's surprise (i was surprised in a good way). which i guess means that the story did a good job of demonstrating the vague sort of way mike was treating the whole ghost thing compared to the other situation he was dealing with. i loved the guest stars and references. ralph roberts, bill denbrough, joe wyzer, sherriff norris ridgewick. although i was slightly disappointed at the throwaway line we got detailing thad beaumont's ultimate fate. i also thoroughly enjoyed all the real life authors he name dropped while describing the process of mike's writing and publishing. i'm sure he was basing this at least some on his own knowledge of the publishing industry, and seeing all those names, most of which i at least know of even if i haven't given them a try, was pretty cool, and lent the novel a bit more realism to me.