The Hostess with the Ghostess: A Haunted Guesthouse Mystery

Copperman’s Haunted Guesthouse series graduates from mass market to hardcover with the enjoyable ninth entry (after 2016’s Spouse on Haunted Hill). While renovating an old inn on the Jersey Shore, licensed PI Alison Kerby received a blow on the head that gave her the ability to see and hear ghosts. She has since been advising ghosts with problems. One ghost, recently deceased lawyer Richard Harrison, needs help from his previously deceased brother, Paul, a ghost pal of Alison’s who inhabits the guesthouse but is traveling at the moment. Alison warily agrees to get involved and summon Paul home. Richard, killed during a murder trial, believes that he was close to proving wealthy client Cassidy Van Doren innocent of murdering her stepfather. Subsequent snooping by Alison, Paul, and tech-wiz ghost Maxie Malone shows that Cassidy may not be as guiltless as Richard hoped. The antics of the ghosts are amusing, but, like the walls they so easily pass through, the many permeable rules allow them to interact with the living world a bit too conveniently at times. Agent: Josh Getzler, Hannigan Salky Getzler Agency. (Jan.)