Tome Thusday: Ghost Writer

 

Hello everyone!

 

Welcome to another fun, cozy mystery review.

 

I like me some of those, particularly when the weather turns a little bit foul in some aspects. There's something so NICE about curling up with a book that deals with, say, crime of some sort, or even Jane Austen (completely other end of the spectrum, I know), as opposed to action and adventure when it's all sunny and nice outside.

 

But I digress.

 

I'm actually working through a backlog of my book list, because I'd been reading these voraciously as last year was drawing to a close, and then of course December happened and I always only do Christmas-themed reviews at that time.

 

And so, more typing fodder now!

 

So hop along for the ride as we return to Salem and a really fun author, Dina Marie, takes us along for a ride with her character, Clara. She's renovating an old house and running into spirits of the deceased, because apparently the renovation is a hobby, and the investigation is her main job now! As you'll see in Ghost Writer.

 

Links to previous related posts can be found at the bottom of the page, as per usual.

 

Although in this case it's just the one, because this is book two in the Salem Cozy Mysteries series, but we're getting there! I'll be reviewing the third book sooner rather than later, but I do have a different one slotted in for next week. 

Anyway, Clara's currently going through her remodel as she's turning the old house into a bed and breakfast scenario, and of course her sister-in-law says she's contesting the well because, obviously. That entire family is bonkers entitled, ah well.

And while Clara's getting along swimmingly with her resident house ghost, William, she gets to meet another spirit rather quickly, wandering into the town's book shop just as there's an event happening with a hometown writer who's gone big, Marlena.

So big, in fact, that she ends up dead before the event's over.

And as a ghost, she goes right after Clara to help her figure out who did it, and to pass on.

Initially reluctant, because Marlena's obnoxious to a fault, Clara relents after William mentions that, no matter what the deceased's faults actually were, she didn't deserve to die.

Which is when she undertakes the case, then.

It first looks like it might have been someone who was jealous of her success from her hometown crew, but with a little investigation, that's quickly off the market.

Things kind of hit a wall until she visits Marlena's childhood home, where the woman who now owns it gives her what she found under a loose floorboard. This includes letters from a married man, as well as a written manuscript by someone called Penelope.

And it turns out, Marlena didn't even write her own bestseller, but Penelope did, and Marlena just stole her book for herself.

Disgusted, Clara REALLY wants nothing more to do with her, but after visiting Penelope, who's been in a psych ward for six months (and, therefore, couldn't have murdered Marlena out of spite), it turns out that she could MAYBE help this young woman, who seems so down about what had happened. See, she left a copy of the book with Marlena to edit (Marlena was freelance editing at the time to help pay the bills), but then after finally getting things sorted on the home front, couldn't find Marlena anywhere to get the manuscript back.

At that time, it had already gotten published, and nobody would have believed her over Marlena, who skyrocketed in popularity overnight.

Well, Clara says, I believe you, and I'm going to make this right.

She's righting all sorts of wrongs, our Clara, including one massive one done to her in-house ghost, William, who she finally learns is considered a traitor in history, having been discovered with Confederate secrets in his hands at the time of the Civil war, and hanged for it.

But, during a night they stay at the hotel (because the house is mid-way through repair work), he explains that it was actually the other guy, the one he killed in self-defense, that was the spy, rather than him, but everyone got it all mixed up, and the powerful people set the narrative. 

Clara, who never believed the whole traitor thing in the first place, is also shocked to learn William actually participated in the Underground Railroad, the project where they helped escaped slaves find their way into freedom, so now she's on a mission to somehow clear his name, two hundred years later.

She'll do it just as soon as she meets up with Penelope and her mother - whom she'd visited once before, to learn about Penelope in the first place - and celebrates Penelope finding the original manuscript she mailed to herself, so they can prove it's hers, rather than Marlena's.

Except, Clara's been asking too many questions.

And Penelope's mom makes wigs and has a tattoo like the woman in an incriminating photo from the investigation who's a suspect.

And it turns out Clara REALLY needs to work on self-defense as she's almost killed in her quest for justice, because Penelope's mom is going to do away with her. No one will ever know, no one needs to know.

Except, Penelope can't live like that, so she calls the police, and Clara leaves.

The book ends with Clara telling William that she and the woman who gave her the manuscript from Marlena's old home formed their own book club, and he's invited, and then she turns on the lights for the first time as the electricity's all finished.

And boy oh boy is it a fun way to end things!

In case I didn't mention, I received an advance review copy of this one. But Clara and William are baaaack! And ohmygosh I keep loving them more and more.

Listen, Sebastian, you're cute and all, but #TeamWilliam all the way.

The mystery is very cozy, it kind of works itself out, but what I love the most is how Clara manages to bring the best out of anyone she befriends, living or spirit.

Also I knew there was no way William was a bad guy. I KNEW IT.

This is a charming and enchanting series which I absolutely recommend.

xx

*image not mine

Going Ghost