Synopsis:
Melanie West is getting her life back on track after a messy divorce when her grandmother, Liza Harris, asks her to open a B&B with her. Together, Liza and Melanie purchase a purportedly haunted mansion on the Oregon coast and jump right into clearing out the cobwebs. But while attempting to remove wallpaper in an upstairs bedroom, the new B&B owners stumble upon a very real skeleton in their closet.
The police suspect the skeleton is that of the wife of the previous owner of the B&B, but no one in town seems to want to say much about her. As the inn owners try to juggle renovations with their own amateur investigations, their grand opening looms closer and closer–and a friendly ghost in their walls starts playing tricks. But it all comes crashing to a halt when a new body is found stabbed to death on the beach below the inn–the victim chillingly close in resemblance to Melanie herself.
It seems someone doesn’t appreciate newcomers prying into the small town’s past, and now it’s up to Melanie and Liza to get to the bottom of these murders to save their business…and their lives. (Goodreads)
Review:
Melanie and Liza are unique feisty characters that we get to learn a little bit about. I felt they could have been a little more developed, but that is only my opinion and others may not agree with me. I did enjoy their bantering, and even though they did not always agree with each other, you never doubted their love for each other. I also enjoyed the situations they got themselves into and some of the adventures that they undertake. I got kinda of aggravated with Liza, insisting that Melania not call her “granny”. She is her grandmother and she should be proud of that fact, at least in my opinion. Again, this may not have bothered other readers. There were love interests for both Melanie and Liza, and I am looking forward to seeing what develops.
There are two mysteries to solve in this book, one from the past and one in the present. I really enjoyed that and thought the author did a good job of handling both mysteries. There were enough suspects to consider and clues to sift through that it was difficult to identify the killer until it was revealed at the end.
The writing style flows smoothly and the book is an easy read. The author is very talented in her descriptive writing and through much of the book I felt like I was right there watching all the action taking place around me. It was interesting to read about the inn renovations and all that went into it.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well crafted cozy mystery. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series, but I hope in that book there is more ghostly activity. I felt this book was a little thin in the paranormal department and hope it is more prominent in future books.
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