The Haunting at Bonaventure Circus

Title: The Haunting at Bonaventure Circus

Author: Jaime Jo Wright

Publisher: Bethany House

Genre: Christian Fiction, Historical Fiction, Dual-time, Mystery, Romance

Source: Own

Challenges: 23 in 2023, Chantel's Read Your Bookshelf challenge

My Review:

The Haunting at Bonaventure Circus drew me in from the first scene. Jaime Jo Wright has written an engaging story I found difficult to put down.

Usually, in a dual-time story, I prefer one storyline over the other. That was not the case with The Haunting at Bonaventure Circus. I was fully invested in Pippa and Chandler's stories.

Pippa is Richard Ripley's daughter. She is an obedient wallflower who has always done what she is told. Her father is cold and distant. Her mother is more interested in pleasing her husband than mothering. This gives Pippa a sense of abandonment and not knowing her place. With the birth of a baby elephant, everything changes for Pippa. It was fascinating to watch her character grow and for her to discover who she truly is.

Chandler loves her son beyond measure. She is fiercely independent and does not need any help. Even with a move to a new location for work, a new diagnosis of an autoimmune disease, and a coworker constantly undermining her, Chandler does not want help. However, if she is going to do her job, she must have someone to watch her son. I understand being fiercely independent and not wanting help, but sometimes we need it. Chandler reluctantly gets to that point, and it drove me crazy that she would not take the offered help sooner. Chandler also goes through tremendous character growth.

You all, I can't even with this story. I had no idea how the two story lines would finally intersect, but seeing it all come together was incredible.. There is so much going on in this story, and I had NO idea who the "bad" guys were. The revelations were shocking.

Let's talk about ghosts. I have heard people say they don't understand ghosts in Christian fiction, and it makes them leery. Whether you believe in ghosts or not is irrelevant. It is presented in a way that one character does believe in ghosts and gives ghost tours (I have been on one, yet I don't believe in ghosts). Wright is not trying to convince you to believe in ghosts or sway your opinion in any particular way. Same for the faith content, it is light. She is not preaching, and she is not trying to persuade the reader to become a Christian. 

The Haunting at Bonaventure Circus takes the reader on a thrilling ride! With a quirky cast of characters, a murder mystery spanning decades, and captivating writing, this is one I highly recommend!

★★★★★/5

Synopsis (Goodreads): 

1928
The Bonaventure Circus is a refuge for many, but Pippa Ripley was rejected from its inner circle as a baby. When she receives mysterious messages from someone called the "Watchman," she is determined to find him and the connection to her birth. As Pippa's search leads her to a man seeking justice for his murdered sister and evidence that a serial killer has been haunting the circus train, she must decide if uncovering her roots is worth putting herself directly in the path of the killer.

Present Day
The old circus train depot will either be torn down or preserved for historical importance, and its future rests on real estate project manager Chandler Faulk's shoulders. As she dives deep into the depot's history, she's also balancing a newly diagnosed autoimmune disease and the pressures of single motherhood. When she discovers clues to the unsolved murders of the past, Chandler is pulled into a story far darker and more haunting than even an abandoned train depot could portend.