The Last Spirits Of Manhattan by John A. McDermott (book review)
A novel featuring Alfred Hitchcock, Henry Fonda, Charles Addams, and other characters who were high and mighty in 1950s America will interest movie lovers of a certain age and hopefully readers, too. ‘The Last Spirits Of Manhattan’ is also a love story and a ghost story. At the heart of it is a family tragedy but, while it’s not a comedy, there is plenty of witty dialogue to entertain the reader. This is fiction based on a real-life event.
In 1956, famous film director Alfred Hitchcock rented an allegedly haunted old mansion at Number 7, East Eightieth Street, Manhattan’s Upper East Side for one night only. The mansion was once owned by Dr. Thomas Satterthwaite and his wife, Isabella Banks Satterthwaite. Isabella’s divorced sister, Mariah Banks Taylor, also lived there with her daughter, Isabella ‘Snug’ Taylor and son Curzon. Mariah’s husband abandoned his family for another woman, an infamous scandal at the time. Isabella ‘Snug’ Taylor died as a young woman during the Spanish Influenza epidemic after World War One. She haunts the mansion. That’s not a spoiler because she appears on the first page of the novel as a ghost. Others turn up later.
There are frequent point-of-view switches but the main protagonist is Carolyn Banks, the great-niece of the two aforementioned sisters, who flees a suitor in the Midwest because she’s not sure she wants to settle down to be a wife and mother, as expected at the time. She rather enjoys working. Her Aunt Bella currently owns the mansion and has Caroline liaise with the advertising agency that’s organising the party for Hitchcock. She gets to meet Pete Donoff and helps him with the preparations and rather likes him. Later, she encounters some of her ancestors. The party begins around a third of the way through the book and takes up the next 200 pages. There’s a lot going on.
The initial chapters might seem a bit slow but stick with it. They efficiently do the legwork of introducing the characters and setting, then the pace picks up when the party starts. Later chapters are very short, sometimes just two pages, and there are a couple of interludes written in the form of a screenplay, which is apt for a book starring Hitchcock. The director’s foibles and flaws are revealed but not scandalously so. Henry Fonda’s dark side gets an airing and Mrs Charles Addams doesn’t come out of it well, but hey-ho. Golddiggers are nothing new. These are side issues because the ghosts of the former inhabitants are at the heart of the story.
I thoroughly enjoyed it. John A. McDermott’s personal connection to the talent, its extra-authenticity and the author’s voice was smooth and often witty. The characters were well-rounded and often likeable, even the advertising men. The famous people seem to fit what is known of them with the ghosts from the past had the right attitudes and morals for their time. This is his first novel but John A. McDermott teaches creative writing and knows all about it. He’s also worked as an advertising copywriter, actor and barman, all of which gives him relevant experience for the party setting and he’s pulled it off nicely. Recommended.
Eamonn Murphy
September 2025
(pub: Atria Books/Simon & Schuster, 2025. 336 page hardback. Price: $29.00 (US), £23.58 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-66805-873-2. Ebook: $14.99 (US))
check out website: www.simonandschusterpublishing.com/atria/
