Grace Abrahams helps ghosts – particularly those who were murdered. She meets the ghosts at storage locker auctions.
Grace meets Jenny Lorrimer. Jenny was strangled by the lead of her headset. Grace finds out that Jenny was an events planner and she was murdered at a wedding that she’d organised. Grace delves further and discovers two suspects – Jenny’s sister and Jenny’s best friend. A shock discovery leads her down a different route.
"if you are looking for a light, undemanding, read to kill a few hours, or want a cozy mystery that you can dip in and out of, this would be ideal."
Reviewer: Reader for Bookangel.
Grace is haunted, to the extent that one of her ghosts is managing a queue for the rest. That's what happens when word gets round that not only can she see ghosts, but that she is willing to help them wrap up unfinished business, including murders. Her main source of business is the bric-a-brac shop she runs with her brother, and when items arrive with ghosts attached, what can she do but help? When she buys a consignment including a headset, and finds out the story of a girl named Jenny, party planner, ghost and murder victim, Grace has her latest case to handle. Not all trouble is from the other side; her brother and business partner's burgeoning romance is taking him away from the shop far too often.
This may be book six, but I had no trouble despire not having read the rest - the focus is the mystery, not the continuing elements from other stories. The formatting is good, and there were no obtrusive spelling or grammar errors, and I love the cover. Don't expect Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Ghost, or Medium - this is definitely the cozy mystery take on the topic. Set in a Bric-a-Brac shop in Leeds, it's a very British book, so expect no guns, people trying to get home in time for Morse, and a deceased-but-still-formidable elderly lady wrangling other ghosts. Where it does stand out is in the blend of the day-to-day and ghosts: Grace can't just tell people she sees ghosts since they'd think she was crazy, and she can't drop everything to solve a murder as she has a shop to run.
It is a light, entertaining, read. The writing is straightforward and the vocabulary simple, ideal for this type of book. It is not a book that takes great effort to read or requires much thought, but it is entertaining, relaxing and in parts funny. It is the type of book that you can put down and wander away from then come back to a while later and get straight back into it. The important thing is that you will come back. After a tiring or stressful day, this would be the ideal book to unwind with over coffee or tea with your feet up.
It starts strong, and the middle introduces a range of plot twists and suspects that kept me guessing. Unfortunately the wrap-up felt a bit too convenient, with all Grace's problems being solved at once. There are a few moments that ring false. Grace is far too old to be wondering how people coped without Amazon or the web, and the murder victim's habit of screaming and disappearing at critical moments gets a bit tiring. The characters are sketched out in a few words - Grace's big-headed but still loyal brother, her ghostly assistant Pearl - and they and the others living and dead who appear are, in general, realistic. There's not much character growth, but then very few of them are doing anything life-changing and it's book six so they are a little settled. Jenny, the murder victim, did seem a little thin but as most of her memories have faded, a lack of personality is understandable.
That said, if you are looking for a light, undemanding, read to kill a few hours, or want a book that you can dip in and out of, this would be ideal.
I am wondering whether or not the "dip in and out of" is a good thing or a bad thing for me. I do love a good mystery, and I would say that having it be cozy sounds nice, but at the same I like to get engrossed with the story and want the ones where I cannot put down. That said, it is nice to switch things up, so this is an intriguing option.
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