The Hostess with the Ghostess: A Haunted Guesthouse Mystery

Life at the Haunted Guesthouse has been peaceful for Alison Kerby since she got married and decided to quit investigating mysteries. Everything is turned upside down when her friend Paul Harrison’s newly deceased brother, Richard, shows up looking for him, but she doesn’t know where in the world Paul is. While Alison searches for Paul, she’s pulled into the last case Richard worked on: the murder of a successful businessman supposedly committed by his stepdaughter. It’s obvious that the two murders are connected, but as Alison and her family dig into the case, they catch the attention of someone willing to do whatever it takes to stop them.

E.J. Copperman has the usual charm and wit of a cozy mystery but with the added humor and quirkiness of ghosts. Even though they’re technically ghosts, they still have a lot of “living” behaviors, from an obsession with Grey’s Anatomy to grilling. A lot of humor is derived from the two character factions of the living and the dead with, only a handful of the living actually able to see and talk to the ghosts. As the mysteries take the majority of the focus, the guests staying there sort of blend into the background, but their presence is often humorous. The two murders tie together in an interesting way and are solved in quite an unusual fashion, with every step of the sleuthing a delightful and fun adventure.

The Hostess with the Ghostess is the newest book in the Haunted Guesthouse Mystery series.