Angel Stark makes an appearance at Penelope Thornton McClure's bookstore to promote her true crime novel "All My Pretty Friends". Not everyone is happy about Angel's book, which is about the murder of a debutante, Bethany Banks, including the victim's sister who interrupts Angels' speech. Someone then tries to run Angel over and shortly after that she disappears. Pen, along with the ghost of Jack Shepard, a private eye who was murdered over fifty years ago, are investigating angel's disappearance when Pen stumbles over a body that turns out to be that of Bethany's sister. Is there a serial killer on the loose?

I love this mystery series. The relationship between Jack Shepard, the ghost of a hard-boiled detective and Penelope, a modern day widow, are what makes the book work. Alice Kimberly deftly weaves one of Jack's old cases with the modern one, writing Jack's case using the jargon of hard-boiled detective literature and Pen's case in modern day language. It's particularly amusing as Jack explains the jargon used in his time and Pen tells him about modern day conveniences such as cell phones and who people such as John F. Kennedy, Jr. were. Readers will chuckle, perhaps uneasily, as Jack wonders why anyone would buy bottled water. Not too many authors could write believably about the attraction between a live person and a ghost, but Kimberly does it beautifully.

The mystery itself is reminiscent of the Kennedy-Skakel case with plenty of suspects and twists and turns. The identity of the murderer will come as a surprise to many readers but is believable. Kimberly throws in a nice way of Jack being able to leave the bookstore to help solve the mystery, which is great, because it allows the characters to interact and sole mysteries in several locations rather than be confined to the bookstore.

I highly recommend this book and the entire series. ( )

http://hollybooknotes.blogspot.com/20... ( )

I personally loved reading this story, which I won't go into details of since other reviewers have covered that. My only complaint is that there isn't really any investigations into Jack's death, why he can "travel" through the buffalo nickel, and enter her dreams as well. I'm hoping as the series goes on, that the author will explain these things. Overall, a light read and very amusing. ( )

Protagonist(s): Penelope McClure, a book shop owner, and Jack Shepard, a
P.I. shade who inhabits the store
Setting: Present-day small town Rhode Island
Series: #2

First Line: "'Packed and stacked,' muttered Jack Shepard, gazing down at the sweltering Manhattan rush hour."

This is the second in a nice little cozy series about a widow who buys a bookstore in small town Rhode Island only to find that it's being haunted by the ghost of a P.I. named Jack Shepard. In this installment, Penelope has an author signing at her shop. Angel Stark has written a true crime book centering on the unsolved murder of a debutante who happened to move in Stark's circle of friends. When Stark turns up missing, Penelope and Jack have to unravel the mysterious death of the debutante in order to find Stark. This series has turned out to be an enjoyable way to spend a lazy
afternoon. ( )