Hello everyone!
As you all know by now, I tend to meander around BookSirens and usually have between three to five books in the works from that particular site - because they're awesome like that.
I've mentioned them multiple times before: they're an online cross-roads where authors can list their ARCs up for grabs and readers can get them for free in exchange for reviews. It's honestly a really, really great site to have on your list if you're like me and love to read, but don't always want to head on down to the library or buy something you aren't sure of.
I tend to buy about three quarters of the e-books which I first have a look at on the site, though.
This one tonight is no exception!
I was suggested this one in one of their 'books you might like' e-mails, and because I'm a fan of whodunit mysteries it was a no-brainer, really.
Especially since it also promises a slow burn romance!
So here we go, everyone. Ghost Talker is the first novella of this six-part series, and tonight's reading of choice.
I really have no other books that are like this, so the post will have to stand on its own two legs until I continue with the series proper.
Byrd Nash is not an author I was familiar with prior to picking up Ghost Talker, but the premise of the series drew me in like moth to flame: a woman who can speak to ghosts, helps the local police force solve crime, and gets entangled with a duke?
Yep, sounds like Sherlock Holmes to me in some small way, so naturally I was right there for it!
Elinor Chalamet is the resident 'Ghost Talker', aka, she was trained by the Morpheus Society in this fictional country that nevertheless has its basis in Victorian era (more or less) to be able to deal with any kind of paranormal activity so long as it's actually ghostly.
She's eating dessert after dinner one night when a gendarme drags her off to the morgue, there to witness the fraud that PRETENDS to talk to ghosts be apprehended by someone simply called the Duke (we get his full title later, don't worry), who then asks Elinor to proceed and see if she can extract some information from their unfortunate body on the slab.
Turns out, said body's last memories are of a woman, and also that, because she knows the body's name - and the fact that the poor guy has a connection to their King (half-brother, if I recall) - she knows too much to be left to her own devices.
Basically, the Duke parks her into his own home to keep an eye on her. Elinor, not being the wilting wallflower he might think she is, works on his coffers to procure herself a new wardrobe (partly at his request), deals with his annoying mother and sister, and continues on with her work as though she's just upgraded her office a little bit, much to his annoyance.
The funniest thing to me is when, during a house party (because, naturally there are house parties), the woman who's the closest neighbour and apparently convinced she's marrying the widowed Duke hosts a ghost hunt through the mansion, ending when Elinor actually summons one of the resident poltergeists to make some noise.
Ironically, said poltergeist hates men and takes residence in the Duke's office. Chaos, I tell you!
But through this all, they're still working on the case for the King, because as it turns out, the Duke? He's kind of the guy's right-hand-man, and it's a bit more problematic than just the half-brother being dead.
See, a tiara went missing right after his stay at the palace. A kind of important tiara, because they need it for the upcoming peace talks during which they will RETURN said tiara, and thus not go into full-fledged war with their neighbours.
The Duke, Elinor, and a friend of hers (who his boss just kind of dumps with them because he's annoyed with the guy LOL) head on down to a disreputable sort of dance hall where the girl supposedly worked - the girl who they saw in those last memories.
They find her, alright. They also find the tiara which the dude did, in fact steal.
Unfortunately for them, Elinor was right: the rubies in said tiara? Not really rubies, but dragon blood. And inside that blood? The soul of an actual dragon which is what cursed the tiara in the first place, because said dragon just drives everyone who wears it mad.
So, naturally, Elinor puts the thing on her head to see if she can get rid of said dragon, which she eventually does, though she can't save the souls who originally stole it, and lands herself in the hospital on top of everything else from exertion of this whole thing
She DOES, however, learn that the Beyond - which, in the lore of her society, is the in-between space from which souls then proceed to the Afterlife - CAN be accessed by mediums if they have some sort of representation to exist within. Think of it being like a big solid void, in which they just get sucked into. But if there's a BOX in that void that they can exist in, THEN they can be there!
This is a momentous discovery and something Elinor will definitely be writing a paper about, plus she managed to solve the Duke's case as well on top of everything else, so she can now return to her own life and job - but also, she recovers her deceased father's watch.
See, her father was murdered when she was just a young girl, and his watch had been missing ever since, but a street urchin brings it to her, and she discerns through her powers that the murderer was someone her father knew.
Also, the watch leaves a burn mark on her chest because it's kind like that.
Dun dun dun!
Ahahaha I LOVED THIS!
As a life-long Sherlock Holmes fan, I was immediately intrigued by Madame Chalamet, particularly because it's sleuth meet ghost - and there's been an influx of really great adaptations in this era, pitting females versus males (looking at you, Miss Scarlet and the Duke).
So I mean, having a woman who talks to ghosts get nabbed by a rich, used-to-getting-his-way duke, put under house arrest, then thumb her nose up at him by running up his bank account, learning details he doesn't want her to learn, and solving his problems AND mystery for him?
Yeah, I'd say this was right up my alley.
The characters grip you immediately, or at the very least, Elinor Chalamet does, and hers is the voice we hear as we read the book, so that's the most important bit. The duke probably needs just a smidgen more fleshing out, but as an overbearing dragon (pun intended based on the plot) he's actually right on the money, complete with scorned lover, dead wife, a boar of a mother and a rather vapid sister!
I can't wait to dig into this deeper; the author's writing style is quick, slick and definitely engaging. Tune in next week for a review of book two!
10/10 recommend.
xx
*image not mine
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