If Walls Could Talk (Haunted Home Renovation, #1)

by Juliet Blackwell

Melanie Turner has made quite a name for herself remodeling historic houses in the San Francisco Bay Area. But more than her reputation is on the line in the first novel in the New York Times bestselling Haunted Home Renovation Mystery series.

At her newest renovation project, a run-down Pacific Heights mansion, Mel is visited by the ghost of a colleague who recently met a bad end with power tools. Mel hopes that by tracking down the killer, she can rid herself of the ghostly presence of the murdered man. 
 
Mel’s only clue is an odd box she discovers inside a wall at the job site. If she can make sense of its mysterious contents, she might be able to nail a killer—before she herself becomes the next construction casualty...

• ISBN10: 0451231813
• ISBN13: 9780451231819
• Publish Date: 7 December 2010 (first published 1 December 2010)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Books Australia
• Imprint: Signet
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 336
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780451231819

Reviews

[Mystereity Reviews]

Between 3.5 and 4 stars

I actually read this one a few years ago, but I have no memory of it (and I tend to remember each book I read like the memory of an old friend.) but I rated it 1 star. I'll rate this one higher, probably because I read the latest in the series pretty recently and enjoyed it a lot.

It was pretty typical for the first in a series, spending time fleshing out the main characters while slogging through the plot. I did enjoy the plot but I'm not sure it was enough to carry the book. Around halfway through I was getting bored and it was hard to keep my interest (which is why it took me 2 months to finish it.)

Overall, not as terrible as my original rating but doesn't rank up there in the close-circle-of-book-friends-etched-in-my-memory.

[MurderByDeath]

Great first! I am a fan of this author's other series', the other one she writes as Juliet Blackwell, and the series she writes with her sister as Hailey Lind. This first in the Haunted Home Renovation series didn't disappoint. The characters are all likeable and well written and I'm looking forward to seeing future character development. I really appreciated too, that I didn't have to suffer through an over abundance of denial about her ability to see ghosts. I'm really looking forward to the next one and hate that I'll have to wait almost an entire year for it.