Ghost in the Wind: A Haunted Guesthouse Mystery (A Haunted Guesthouse Mystery, #7)

by E. J. Copperman

Murder and mystery on the Jersey Shore from the national bestselling author of Inspector Specter...

Never meet your heroes—especially when they’re dead…

Guesthouse owner, single mother, and reluctant ghost whisperer Alison Kerby is about to sit down to movie night with her family and friends when she’s struck speechless. Floating before her is the ghost of her musical idol, 1960s English rock star Vance McTiernan. He’s in desperate need of help from Alison and her resident ghostly gumshoe, Paul Harrison.

Reports claim that four months ago, Vance’s daughter died from a drug overdose. Vance, however, thinks she was murdered. While Alison agrees to help, Paul is suspicious of Vance’s motives. But after the body of the alleged killer is found in the movie room, Alison and Paul must act quickly before someone else finds a stairway to heaven...

• ISBN10: 0425269272
• ISBN13: 9780425269275
• Publish Date: 1 December 2015
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Berkley Publishing Corporation,U.S.
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 304
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780425269275

Reviews

[Silvara]

Check out my other reviews, discussions and link ups at Fantasy of the Silver Dragon.

I received this book for free from Berkley Prime Crime in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.


It sounded like a really neat concept, being able to see ghosts and having them not only entertain the guests in the guesthouse, but running a PI firm of one living person and two dead ones.

The way Alison interacted with the police woman, McElone was perfect. McElone didn't want to believe in ghosts, didn't want to work with a PI she didn't feel was up to the job. But because of something that happened in an earlier book (which I haven't read), she's kind of forced into belief. And she's not particularly happy about it.

I didn't much care for Vance, and while I'm guessing the slightly sarcastic asides Alison says to the reader are supposed to be funny, most of them just ended up irking me a bit. I like snarky characters, I like sarcastic ones too, but something about the way it came off in this book just didn't click with me.

I liked Alison's daughter Melissa the best of the characters. Most of the other ones didn't really grab me. I wanted to like Paul, he seemed like he could be a really interesting ghost. Unfortunately he didn't seem to have a sense of humor at all, and if he was teased took it too literally. He also was one-track-minded and pursued the case above nearly anything else.

On the other hand, I really liked the relationship between Alison's mom and dad. How even though her dad is dead, he's still around and fixing the house up for Alison. He sticks like glue to her mother (who can also see and hear ghosts), and they behave exactly like a loving married couple, even though one half of the couple is dead.

I had a feeling I knew what the mystery around Lester was going to be, and even though I was exactly right, the way it unfolded was funny and not expected to me. I had no idea who the killer in the main mystery was, I thought it was someone else right up until the reveal.

The cover is gorgeous! I didn't even notice the ghost woman sitting on the railing until I was halfway through reading the book. But I'm not sure why there are crows all over the lawn.

This review was originally posted on Fantasy of the Silver Dragon

[MurderByDeath]

This is one of those books, and series, that is well-written, with pretty good plotting and very well-crafted characters, but just fails to engage me.  I've been reading these books since the beginning and I've never not enjoyed each one, but they've never resonated enough with me that I've been eager to pick up the next one.  I feel bad about this because it is a good series, but if I'm not looking forward to the next release, I need to just let it go.   

It's definitely a case of "it's me, not the book" so if you enjoy light, totally non-spooky ghost stories tied to good mysteries and written with a lot of humor, I'd definitely recommend giving this series a shot, it deserves it.  I'm going to hang on to the books I have, just in case, but I'll probably end with this one.