Copyright: 2010
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Genre: Mystery
Pages: 293
Author's Website
My rating: 3/5
Simple Description:
Rory's Uncle Mac died suddenly and left her his house and other belongings, including his private detective agency. Rory is deeply saddened by his loss but knows she needs to take care of things. She starts to contact his clients to let them know what happened so they can find another agency. There is one man, however, who requests Rory continue working on the case. He has been to all the other agencies and non of them would take him as a client. His sister was found dead in a house she was decorating, it was ruled an accident and he's the only one who believes it was murder. While Rory can't get paid to investigate since she's a sketch artist with the police department, she decides to work on the case in her free time.
As if that wasn't enough for her to deal with, she is soon shocked to discover that the house she inherited is also the home of a ghost, Ezekiel Drummond. Zeke was a federal marshal who was murdered in the 1870's.
It takes Rory awhile to warm up to the idea of a ghost inhibiting the house, but she soon realizes that Zeke can be useful. Zeke, it appears, was very good at being a Marshal and he helps her with the investigation.
Now what you really want to know....my thoughts:
I think this is a great start to a new series. I enjoy the paranormal so having a ghost that helps out with the investigation is a fun twist for me. The fact that he was murdered and wants help trying to figure out what happened all those years ago is interesting too. There are a couple of times in the book where we do go back to the 1870's and get part of his story and for me that just made the story better.
I also like that while Rory is a detective with a local police department, she is a sketch artist and therefore doesn't have the investigative background. So she is still an amateur detective. She knows she can't freelance and therefore doesn't ask for help from her co-workers and friends but does get some help from the ME. I thought this was a different twist and fun for a new cozy story.
Now, Rory and Zeke don't always see eye to eye and sometimes that can be somewhat annoying, if I do have to give some negative feedback to the story. However it is the first in a new series and therefore has a lot of room to grow. I love how it ended, I was wondering how things would work out in order to make this series continue and work. I definitely look forward to reading more in this series and I think other cozy mystery readers would enjoy this one too.
Thanks to Berkley Prime Crime for providing this book for review.
4 comments:
It sounds like this series has a lot of promise!
I have this on the nightstand and can't wait to read it. I'm not sure I knew there was a ghost in there. COOL!
Kris, why 3/5? What would make it better? (I'm trying to decide if I should add it to my TBR list)
Love the new look!
Bermudaonion - It does have a lot of promise, will definitely read #2 when it comes out.
Vickie - I didn't realize there was a ghost in it until I started reading it too! haha! I did flip to the back cover to see if it was mentioned, and of course it was, somehow I just missed that.
Professor Stacy - for me a 3/5 means it's still a really good book, but not exactly a 4. I had some issues with how the main character seemed to get angry at the ghost a lot..it just seemed like she was too quick to anger and for some reason that annoyed me. lol! I have no idea why. I'm hoping that in book #2 she is more comfortable with the ghost and not so quick to get her feathers ruffled.
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