This one just tried too hard. Definitely not as good as the first book.

Alice and Aunt Twila are off on a ghost hunting adventure in an old, abandoned, historic hotel scheduled for demolition, in a sleepy Texas town. The hotel is crazy with ghosts and one in particular – a gorgeous hunk of a man-ghost who keeps appearing to them naked – has convinced them to assist him on his quest to cross over to the other side. On a private tour, they discover the dead body of a woman dressed in 20's flapper-style at the bottom of an elevator shaft - very obviously murdered.

The story is full of ghostly, haunting fun but otherwise, the writing was much weaker and could have been oh-so-tighter. Disproportionate animosity from the Sheriff is never really explained, motives for some characters are tacked on and there are way too many characters; everything is overly complicated and the story suffers under it's own weight. There's no flow. There is, however, an hysterical scene involving skunks.

The murder and it's resolution also suffered under its own weight of crazy motivations, too many suspects and completely unbelievable actions and reactions on the part of all the participants. The ending, the final confrontation, was just well, ridiculous. The author shoved a metaphysical sex scene into the middle of her confrontation with a ghost, with no segues, no explanation and, it seems, no reason beyond the fact that she really wanted that sex to happen before the book ended.

I'm not sorry I read it, or re-read it, or kept it all these years, but I can look at it and say, in spite of the ghostly fun, that yeah, it's not a well-written book. ( )

Ghosts, mystery, murder, animals, laughter combine in a fast-paced story peopled with characters I like. What more could I ask for in a story! Good Read!

Ghosthunters Alice Carpenter and her Aunt Twila set out to investigate the death of gorgeous naked ghost Patrick, a former guest of the now derelict Springs Hotel in Mineral Springs, Texas. They are thrust into a new and grisly murder when the find a woman in the elevator shaft with her body cut in half, before they can even begin their paranormal investigation.

From this point on the ghosthunters meet the challenge of an incompetent police chief who treats Alice as a suspect, the arrival of her ex-husband Jack, a Texas cop/detective who answers her call for help. Alice’s dog Trucker and her cat Miss Molly who assist the ghosthunters in their investigations. A hilarious encounter with skunks. A betrayal by a friend, and even an attempted kidnapping by a band of guerilla survivalists. ( )