While reading this, I kept thinking it had a familiar feel - and I finally decided it shared elements with Sharon McCrumb's mystery series staring Elizabeth McPhearson. Both are set in the south, and there is the whole ghost story element - not to mention the somewhat naive heroine. All those elements make for a fun read in "Devil May Care". ( )

March, 2002
Devil May Care
Elizabeth Peters

GREAT book. After the stress of losing the house, this was exactly what I needed. It was perfect, absolutely perfect. Exactly the kind of book I need to get me through the days and give me a warm, happy feeling.

Ellie is the young, female protagonist (as always), who goes to house-sit at her eccentric Aunt Kate’s Virginia mansion (Aunt Kate is a thinly disguised Barbara Mertz herself), full of cats and dogs and just maybe a few ghosts.

From Amazon: “Ellie feels right at home here with the nearly invisible housekeepers and the plethora of pets, but she soon realizes that there are disturbing secrets about the local aristocracy buried in a dusty old book she has carried into the mansion. And her sudden interest in the past is attracting a slew of unwelcome guests -- some of them living and some, perhaps not. And the terrible vengeance that Ellie and her friends seem to have aroused -- now aimed at them -- surely cannot be...satanic.”

As is usually the case with Peters' books, I was sorry to see it end. I’ll have to read it again soon. ( )

Ellie goes to house-sit for her aunt. What she ends up getting is a bunch of scary encounters with ancestors of the six major families of the area. Her fiance, Henry, is no help, but the doctor's son, Donald is. ( )

Ellie is young, rich, engaged and in love. These are the carefree days before marriage and new responsibility, and anything goes -- including house-sitting at eccentric Aunt Kate's palatial estate in Burton, Virginia. Ellie feels right at home here with the nearly invisible housekeepers and the plethora of pets, but she soon realizes that there are disturbing secrets about the local aristocracy buried in a dusty old book she has carried into the mansion. And her sudden interest in the past is attracting a slew of unwelcome guests -- some of them living and some, perhaps not. And the terrible vegeance that Ellie and her friends seem to have aroused -- now aimed at them -- surely cannot be...satanic. ( )