The La Fleur restaurant has a slew of unusual phenomena. Bonnet-clad apparitions pass through walls, blood leaks from ceilings and rats besiege the dining room. Experts from the Great Essex Witch Museum are called in to quell these strange sights. But before Rosie Strange and Sam Stone can do their thing events turn darker. For La Fleur's chef has been strung up and slaughtered like a pig. More oddly, the only witness, the owner's daughter Mary, swears blind a ghost did it.
Rosie and Sam must find out what's happening before Mary takes the fall. But intuitions and tip-offs lead them stumbling into the dark waters of the past, exposing secrets of a wider conspiracy, as well as secrets all Rosie's own. With strange chills Rosie and Sam learn that seeing isn't always believing, while thoughts of truth may be just as illusory.
Even better story than the first one, though epically bad copyediting. Rosie is still an odd character for me to sort out, but coincidentally, I was at the hair salon today and was able to ask my stylist, a UK native, about the whole Essex thing, which he tried to explain while desperately trying to be PC about the whole thing. I got the gist though, and it helped. It also helped that Rosie seemed more focused in the second half of this one.
This story revolves around a good old fashioned murder mystery albeit with ghosts and a haunted restaurant. Nothing to scare the reader too badly, but the historical context of the plot, (which is based on historical events, sadly) is wickedly dark and honestly, even if this wan't a cozy(ish), would be hard reading in a few places. While this book is excellent on almost all fronts, it is also full of trigger warnings for epic violence against women.
I liked the ending - I liked that it didn't involve the MC doing something stupid or ending up in a woman-in-peril situation. The very last page was also creepy as hell.
Can't wait for book 3!
Reading updates
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Started reading
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10 July, 2018:
Finished reading
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10 July, 2018:
Reviewed