Tome Thursday: The Death Ring Mystery

 

Hello everyone!

 

Welcome back to our deliciously steampunk-y and fun world of ghost talkers!

 

Yep, you read that bit right.

 

We covered the FULL series by Byrd Nash before on this blog, but we've now spun out to the spin-off that she's releasing at the moment.

 

I say this even as the latest release, the third in the row, is supposed to hit shelves on March 24.

 

Mark those calendars, people!

 

Lots of bookish stuff is happening then.

 

But before we get to THAT, we have to first chew our way through this little mystery.

 

And boy, it's one of those ridiculously FUN ones.

 

Buckle up, don't put any strange rings on your fingers, and let's take a look at what's happening in The Death Ring Mystery.

 

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

 

We've already met our heroine Twyla, who's not as suave as Elinor of Ghost Talker fame, but she IS a heck of a lot of fun to read about, regardless.

 

Because this time around, she goes out of town.

 

Leona Granger, Elinor's former mentor, and someone Twyla dislikes because she tends to see people for who they are rather than wish for who they weren't, and she sees Granger as someone who thinks she OWNS people, takes Twyla from home.

 

She drags her to the countryside and plops her into a stagecoach that will take her to the Morpheus Society sanatorium, that is to say, where they put people they don't know what to do with and supposedly can't help anymore.

 

As it happens, however, Twyla can enter the Beyond - the place where ghosts go before passing to the Afterlife - and if souls are stuck there, like Elinor had been, she could bring them back.

 

But not before she gets thrown off the coach, twists her ankle, and falls asleep at a random house in the middle of nowhere. She then marches herself to the sanatorium, ensures people won't bully her by dragging one of the others to the Beyond with her, and proceeds to fail spectacularly during her first "mission" to return someone's soul to their body.

 

She's not one to quit, however, and tries again with a different case, this time succeeding by basically being her logical self and pointing things out. It's that simple.

 

Then she runs into a roadblock.

 

Or more accurately, she gets hoodwinked by a piece of jewellery.

 

She somehow ends up with a ring on her finger that's carrying the curse of its owner, who's a pompous ass ghost and wants the wearer of the ring to be mistress of his house and worship him like he's some kind of god. Apparently, the girl who ORIGINALLY got this ring chose to hang herself rather than live with the douche, and Bob's your uncle.

 

Now the ring's on Twyla's finger and the ghost is annoying the hell out of her, so as she's working through her original failed case - eventually succeeding with the help of HER ghost Bryce, the one she keeps returning to - she's also figuring out how the hell to deal with the annoyance.

 

She ropes up some of the others from the sanatorium for help, deciding to indeed throw a dinner party ... but makes it the least glorious, the most drunkenly debauched she can.

 

By the time morning rolls around, she calls the bride's ghost out, who'd been hiding all this time so she didn't meet the idiot in this form, too, and Twyla says she can help her pass on as well.

 

Nah, I'm good, says the ghost, who decides to enjoy her newfound freedom.

 

How did Twyla manage with the ring and the ghost, you ask? Easy. She just told the asshole she'd basically ruin not just his house, but his reputation - what remained of it on this plane - if he didn't pass on and leave her be. The ring is just a ring now, and she leaves it with the maid, so she can be mistress of the house.

 

Then she walks off.

 

Thank you SO much to the author for sending me an ARC of this book! Only Twyla would get caught with a cursed ring, take one look at its ghostly owner, and go: lemme show you all the ways you'll REGRET cursing me.

I can't 😂😂😂 

Her forays into the Beyond and her heroics at solving the Society's problems really get pushed to the side while she deals with the bullying ghost haha.

I LOVE her and can't wait for more adventures with her! 

 

xx

*image not mine

 

The Blood Locket Mystery - Ghost Talker Series