An ethnography of the group, the book analyzes the MRTC in the context of the wider religious background of Uganda, and attempts to show what led to the deaths.

It places the MRTC within the context of Ugandan religion and history at the time, with a particular focus on the influence of Nyabingi, a set of local religious practices utilized to redress misfortune, which Vokes argues was later replaced by and conflated with the Virgin Mary.

The conclusions of the book were mostly praised, with reviewers calling them plausible and well evidenced, though some commentators disagreed with the classification Vokes made of the organization or its aspects.

Vokes tells of how he had only recently arrived in the country and was attempting to kill time when, sitting in a hotel, he saw it break on the news; he later traveled near the crime scene by coincidence but was denied entry by a policeman.

The introduction summarizes the book's arguments, including its relation to Nyabingi, an organization mostly viewed a colonial resistance group active in the early 20th century, but that which actually had the primary purpose of acquiring redress for misfortunes.

With the influence of the Catholic Church by colonial missionaries, it began to fulfill the social role Nyabingi had once provided, particularly through the sacrament of confession.

Vokes views this model of Christian thought as heavily influenced by indigenous Kiga cosmology, and many old Nyabingi practices and terms were transformed into Catholic ones.

In 1989, he met another seer, Ceredonia Mwerinde, who told him that she had received a vision telling her she would soon meet a man named Joseph, with whom she would change the world.

He raises several issues with this idea, noting that though a key point of evidence was that the dead had sold all their belongings, they had done so out of desperation and had nowhere else to turn.

Richard Fardon of the University of London called it "compelling", complimenting it as "amongst the outstanding Africanist ethnographies of recent years" and "riveting from first to last".

[7] A review in American Ethnologist called the book an "excellent" example of anthropology on easily misunderstood groups and a "vital contribution to the study of the MRTC".

The Ugandan Daily Monitor reviewed Ghosts of Kanungu in the aftermath, praising it as a "highly readable" work and noting its focus on the context of the movement's origins.

[9] Susan Reynolds Whyte said it showed "what Africanist scholarship can be at its best", calling it a "tour de force in historical ethnography and anthropological detective work".

Beidelman described it as resembling an "an investigative journalistic account of a major murder mystery" and said it seemed as if much information had been withheld by involved authorities.

Naomi Haynes, writing for the journal Social Analysis, said Ghosts of Kanungu was "cogently argued and compelling", calling its conclusions plausible.

He describes Vokes' theory of the deaths themselves, that the bodies found after the fire were unrelated, as "without doubt the most radical aspect" of the book, noting its rejection of the usual interpretation of the events.

The journal History and Anthropology described Vokes's work as "especially compelling" in how it showed how the MRTC was subject to international influences, but criticized its conclusion as the "least convincing" aspect of the book.

[3] She did however question Vokes' conclusions deeming the MRTC Nyabingi worshipers given that the evidence he presented and the group's own goals seemed to tie them more to the Catholic church, as well as the usage of several informants in New Zealand (who only had access to photographs) to verify some data instead of people who were at the scene.