Book Review and Giveaway - The Ghost and the Dead Librarian (A Haunted Bookshop Detective Mystery) by Cleo Coyle

My Review

The Ghost and the Dead Librarian is set in a bookshop in Quindicott, Rhode Island.  Penelope (Pen) lives with her young son and runs a small family bookshop.  She communicates, via thoughts, with 1940's detective Jack Shepard.  When Pen hosts local author Dory McKenna for a book signing, she has no idea what will happen.  Dory is a retired librarian, known as the Dead Librarian because she also writes obituaries.  She has written a book about their hometown that raises the ire of some of the community.  And then she is discovered dead in the bookshop - with her own obituary in her lap.  Pen and Jack set out to solve the mystery.

I wanted to read this mystery because I enjoyed earlier books in the Haunted Bookshop Mystery series.  I have not read the series in a while, but I was able to catch up quickly.

I love older hardboiled mysteries (especially Raymond Chandler) so particularly love the character of Jack.  His voice is absolutely perfect.  I really enjoy the back and forth between Jack and Pen;  it's snappy and so smartly written.

This is a clever, well paced mystery.  I'm excited to be reading this series again and look forward to the next book!   I recommend The Ghost and the Dead Librarian for fans of old detective novels and also readers who enjoy a light paranormal twist.

Book Synopsis

A LIBRARY JOURNAL “MYSTERY PICK OF THE MONTH” In an utterly charming new mystery from New York Times bestselling author Cleo Coyle, a small-town Rhode Island bookshop owner investigates the death of an eccentric librarian with the help of a wisecracking, 1940s gumshoe ghost.

As a young widow, Penelope moved back to her quaint Rhode Island town to give her young son a safer home and her aunt’s dying bookshop new life. Using her late husband’s insurance money, Pen polished the store into a local treasure. But her updates did more than attract new customers. They roused a dead private eye from his big sleep.

With Pen’s affection for hardboiled detective stories, it’s no surprise she’s developed a fondness for the wisecracking yet oddly likeable spirit. Sure, Jack’s cold spots are exasperating, along with his proclivity for putting noir fiction in the cozy section. But murder was Jack’s business in life, and his PI skills come in awfully handy when the body of an eccentric librarian is found amid the bookshop’s aisles.

For years, Dory jokingly called herself “The Dead Librarian” because of her hobby of collecting and writing local obituaries. Now, in death, she’s discovered with her own eerily pre-written obit. Was it a suicide note? Jack and Pen say no and their certainty takes them from a ghost town’s ancient cemetery to a posh Newport mansion. When another body drops, a mysterious stranger makes Pen a shocking offer, one that may change her life—and Jack’s afterlife. But unless Jack can help Pen prove who “checked out” the librarian, a ruthless killer may close the book on her.

“This spin-off of Coyle’s ‘Haunted Bookshop’ series blends cozy mystery, supernatural intrigue, and classic noir influences into a suspenseful small-town murder mystery….Combining humor, literary references, ghostly interventions, and layered community drama, the novel explores how hidden truths from the past continue to haunt the present.” —Library Journal (*Starred Review)

Author Bio

CLEO COYLE is a pseudonym for Alice Alfonsi, writing in collaboration with her husband, Marc Cerasini. Both are New York Times bestselling authors of the long-running Coffeehouse Mysteries, now celebrating more than 20 years in print, and the national bestselling Haunted Bookshop Mysteries. With more than one million books sold, their works have been translated into Spanish, Japanese, and Czech; received multiple Best of Year selection honors from reviewers; and have been recommended by Booklist as among the best culinary mysteries for core library mystery collections. Alice and Marc are also bestselling media tie-in writers who have penned properties for Lucasfilm, NBC, Fox, Disney, Imagine, Toho, and MGM. They live and work in New York City, where they write independently and together, wrangle their rescue cats, drink a lot of java, and cook like crazy. Connect with Cleo at CleoCoyleBooks.com

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