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The Ghost and the Haunted Mansion
by
Alice Kimberly
paranormal fantasy, cozy mystery in a paperback edition that was published by Berkley on January 1, 2009 and has 281 pages.
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Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Ghost and Mrs. McClure, The Ghost and the Dead Deb, The Ghost and the Dead Man's Library, The Ghost and the Femme Fatale
Fifth in the Haunted Bookshop mystery series set in an old bookstore, Buy the Books, in Quindicott, Rhode Island. One of the owners, Penelope McClure, has an odd partnership in detecting . . . with the ghost of a private detective, Jack Shepard, who was murdered in the bookstore in 1949.
My Take
This was rather fun in that Pen was so worried about ghostbusters and exorcisms taking Jack away from her. I thought she got a bit carried away about it, but Pen was definitely worried about Jack disappearing forever.
The disappointing part of it was that there just wasn’t the action and excitement I’ve come to expect. Sure, the unveiling of how they terrified Miss Todd to death was interesting and I’m curious as to how Kimberly will use Ophelia and Stoddard in future stories—how could she resist with all the terror it inspires in Pen! But I missed having more action inside the bookstore, we hardly saw Sadie, and we didn’t get much time on one of Jack’s old cases in Pen’s dreams.
Sadie certainly made a good pitch for an open mind about books—just because a book’s subject isn’t your cup of tea, it’s no reason to put it down. It’s made me stop and think. I’m hoping when I get down on a book, it’s for the right reasons and not just because I dislike its subject.
It’s been two years since this installment was published and I’m hoping Kimberly hasn’t given up on the series . . . I want to know what happens when Bud beats the Municipal Zoning Witch at the polls, I want to see Pen have a regular date and listen to Jack bitch and moan about it, I want more action between Pen and Jack . . .
The Story
While delivering a parcel of books, Pen stumbles over the dead body of her buyer, a Miss Todd, who lived as a recluse in her old mansion. Seymour Tarnish is on the hot seat for this one . . . mostly because Chief Ciders and Bull McCoy have a hard-on for hurtin’ Seymour and they’re both stupider than bricks. And when Pen tells them she saw Seymour running across the road with a bloodied shirt and Miss Todd’s will is read and Seymour inherits just about everything, well . . . even if the medical examiner says she died of natural causes, Ciders will do just about anything to put Seymour away even if Pen still thinks Miss Todd was frightened to death.
The Characters
I suspect we may have a couple of new characters in the series: Emory Stoddard is/was Miss Todd‘s lawyer and Ophelia Tuttle is Stoddard’s secretary and both are members of the Rhode Island Paranormal Society. Ophelia can see and hear Jack . . . you can imagine how annoyed Pen is that Ophelia can see Jack and she can’t!
Mrs Fromsette and April Briggs are mother and daughter with a huge stake in things.
The Cover and Title
The cover has us peeking in through the opened, double-arched doors of Miss Todd’s mansion at the stairs just inside the door with Jack’s fedora caught on the newel post. It’s missing the lovely stained glass border the first four books had. Instead the top and bottom are bordered by a thick band of burgundy.
The title is a bit ho-hum but accurate as it is all about the The Ghost and the Haunted Mansion.
