Anna J. McIntyre

I wanted to like this book. I am “The Ghost Story Junkie”. I love ghost stories but this one just didn’t do it for me. I believe that the author was going for an entirely different story than what she got in the end. The idea had promise but the theme that the author started with became lost somewhere in the mixed-up storyline that contained so many grammar and punctuation errors I lost count. I gave the book a reluctant 2.5 stars because I felt that most of the errors were probably show more not entirely, if at all, the author’s fault. Some copywrite editor should be ashamed of themselves to allow this to go to press like this. The story needed some “first aid” ...like some red herrings thrown into the plot and less of the early reveals that should have been left until later in the story before being shown to us. Some of the coincidences were simply unnecessary. It appeared to almost be an attempt to rack up word count. We also didn’t need a full run-down in every new chapter of everything that had previously happened. Another attempt for word count. The only thing that all of this did was make the book become very much less of a real ghost story and more of an off the wall romance...which really didn’t work well either. show less

Danielle Boatman and her best friend Lily Miller depart California for Oregon so that Dani can start a bed-and-breakfast in the ancient mansion she’s inherited from her great-aunt. It’s no spoiler to note that Marlow House comes with a ghost: It’s in the title, after all. Wealthy, prim Walt Marlow’s been dead since 1925, and no one’s lived in the house since. Indeed, it’s Dani that alerts Walt to the fact that he’s been dead for decades.

Unknown to Dani and Lily, all sorts of show more folks have designs on them and Marlow House. In addition, kindly Dani wants to help poor Walt move on to the afterlife by investigating his untimely demise. Author Bobbi Holmes has written a breezy, amusing cozy. Does Walt move on and out of Marlow House? Well, The Ghost of Marlow House is the first in a series, so decide for yourself. As for me, I liked Dani, Lily and Walt enough to come back for more. show less

ghosts, cozy-mystery, amateur-sleuth, family-dynamics

Unusual murder mystery involving inheritance, cousins, resident ghost, and more red herrings than anyone can manage. By the time the corpse is found, even the reader wants to give her a swirlie! The resident ghost is a bit unusual and sometimes more of a hindrance than help, and the local cops are jailing a suspect every other day. But still, it was a fun read.
Romy Nordlinger is okay as narrator.

Spoiler- although not much of one.
I was very pleased that Walt got a body, although I could see that coming as soon as they showed that spirits could get into empty bodies a few books ago. I'm glad she balanced Clint's character out so that it wasn't just him getting what was coming to him, but him being OK with it.
I am thrilled that there seems to be another book coming, I was so afraid this was going to be the end of the series. I guess that's why she killed Marie off in the last book show more and has developed Eva so much. Danielle can continue to be haunted.
I appreciate that she has ambiguity about how the after death thing works, but would love to see her deal with a seance type spirit, and she may have to if we're going to fill in what happened with Briana. show less