A Ghostly Light
Written by Juliet Blackwell
Cover Art by Brandon Dorman
Cover Design by [TK]
I have never been to a lighthouse nor have I ever wanted to visit a lighthouse. I am not a fan of being out in the middle of the sea among the crashing waves, secluded from society. It has never sounded like something that would be of interest to me. Well, Ms. Blackwell, “A Ghostly Light” has now made me want to make a trip to the nearest lighthouse and go ghost hunting on my next day off. Well done!
dare I say a ghostly light? — seemed to emanate from the lighthouse’s narrow windows.”
Mel Turner is a talented head of a renovation team, hired to renovate an 1871 lighthouse and home on Lighthouse Island near San Francisco. She also has the ability to see ghosts, which to me, is amazing. Spirits fascinate me. She struggles with this gift, however, but seems to be coming into her own thanks to the help of her boyfriend and family.
After her best friend is accused of murdering an abusive ex-husband, Mel must help solve not only that murder with the help of the ghost of said ex husband, but also get involved in solving a century old mysterious disappearance of a young boy whose family used to live and watch the lighthouse.
If you love ghosts, this one has three of them. They aren’t in the backstory either. They are right there in the mix with the living. There is also a ton of interesting history that, if you look into it via online and books, actually happened.
For instance, female light keepers make the same as their male counter parts during the Victorian era. Wow, that’s a fun bit of information you don’t get everyday. Like I said, sign me up to visit the nearest lighthouse. The history alone on these must be fascinating and I love history.
The character of Mel helps the reader really get into wanting to care about these old structures and the contents within. From the original woodwork to the old books and personal belongings of the former keepers, there is nothing in the adventure that the reader won’t enjoy. And yes, it is an adventure.
In “A Ghostly Light”, I as a reader discovered a new interest wrapped within other interest I had, lighthouse exploration! Juliet Blackwell brought me into a fictional world that I can now take out into the real world and really experience…without the dead body hopefully.
I haven’t read any books from the rest of her Haunted Home Renovation Mystery series but plan to after reading this piece. If you haven’t read the others either, don’t fret. This story stands alone.
So, get on your life jacket, hard hat and your EMF detector and catch a boat to Lighthouse Island to meet with Mel and her crew. An adventure awaits.
About Juliet Blackwell:
Juliet Blackwell was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, the youngest child of a jet pilot from New York and an editor from Texas. She graduated with a degree in Latin American Studies from University of California, Santa Cruz, and went on to earn Masters degrees in Anthropology and Social Work from the State University of New York, Albany.
While in graduate school she published several articles based on her research with immigrant families from Mexico and Viet Nam, as well as one full-length translation: Miguel León-Portilla’s seminal work, Endangered Cultures.
Juliet taught Medical Anthropology at SUNY-Albany, was producer for a BBC documentary about Vietnamese children left behind by US soldiers, and worked as an elementary school social worker in rural New York. Upon her return to California she became a professional artist and ran her own decorative painting, historical renovation, and domestic design studio for more than a decade. In addition to mainstream novels, Juliet pens the New York Times Bestselling Witchcraft Mysteries and the Haunted Home Renovation series.
As Hailey Lind she wrote the Agatha Award-nominated Art Lover’s Mystery series. She is past president of Northern California Sisters in Crime and former board member of Mystery Writers of America. Juliet lives in a hundred-year-old house with extensive botanical gardens in Northern California, but spends as much time as possible in Europe and Latin America. She believes in the magic of language, travel, and cultural exchange to open hearts, minds, and souls.
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