The Ghost and the Dead Deb

When young widow Penelope Thornton-McClure moved her son and her life to a small town in Rhode Island, she knew things were going to be different. She just didn't realize how different, until the ghost of a 1940's gumshoe named Jack Shepard entered her life. Now Jack has helped Penelope realize that she's stronger than she thought and can face things she never thought possible - including the onslaught of her wealthy in-laws, who have been doing their best to run roughshod over her for years, and she's finding a new world opening up...

When a young author named Angel Stark arrives at Pen's bookstore for a promotion on her new book, Pen doesn't expect things to get heated. But she should have, considering the book is about a dead show more debutante named Bethany Banks whose murder is still unsolved. When Angel is attacked outside the store and local boy Johnny Napp arrives to help, Pen doesn't realize that when Johnny leaves with Angel it will unleash a slew of events that will bring Bethany's last night on earth back to the forefront; and that there's more story yet to be told, and Johnny might not only be who he says he is, but have a decidedly bigger role in it.

But when Angel disappears, along with Bethany's sister Victoria, the past comes back to haunt everyone involved, and Pen may need Jack's help more than she thinks in order to keep an innocent man from being wrongfully put away forever...

When Angel's book comes out there's obviously people who don't like it; namely, those that are participants in the story. All of them are from wealthy backgrounds and thus far have been able to protect themselves from the notoriety of murder. Yet the book promises to lay bare the details of the gruesome night Bethany was found strangled, and someone is obviously guilty.

But when Angel herself first has run-ins with several people - the dead girl's sister, for one - and then is later found murdered in a similar manner, it's obvious someone wanted to make sure this was her first and last book. But since Johnny is the main suspect, Pen feels that she needs to find the truth, because he's been dating her clerk Mina she thinks someone has it all wrong. So she enlists Jack to help her seek the real killer since it seems the police are focusing only on one person.

This is the second book in the Haunted Bookshop series, and I can honestly say that I loved it just as much as the first. Penelope is beginning to accept Jack's presence in her life, and even depend on him when the need arises. She's also becoming a stronger, more resilient person, and I really like that.

I also love the dream sequences where Penelope is able to travel backward in time to Jack's world; it's always for a purpose - to help her figure out things in her own world. I'm not going to lie; I really love that period of time, being a huge classic film buff myself, and any time I find a book that can pull me into it, I'm loving every second of it. This series is able to do just that, and I relish it.

When the ending comes and the murderer is revealed, it's more a sense of justice that is felt than any evildoing on the part of the murderer, and that's fine by me. The writing is taut, the words flow, the story is well-told and I marvel at the fact that the author(s) can take us to the past so easily and make it believable. My only hope would be that when this series does make its final episode that somehow, those 'higher ups' as it were, would find that Jack is worthy of being given a second chance in life. After all, miracles happen every day if you just look around, and this would be no different. Recommended. show less

This is such a fun series, and I'm really glad I rediscovered it by pulling the book from my shelves. It centers around the owner of an independent bookstore (Penelope), and a deceased PI (Jack) whose spirit is trapped in her bookstore. While this sounds like a bizarre concept, it actually works really well, and makes for a fun and different cozy mystery read.

In this book, a rich party girl pens a tell-all true crime novel about her former friend, who was brutally murdered at one of their fancy parties. When the rich party girl then turns up dead, Penelope and Jack must figure out the connections between the old crime and the new one.

I love mysteries surrounding secrets from the past, and wish it was possible to read the fake true crime show more book within the cozy mystery book because it sounded really interesting-that's how well-written and good this series is. I love the characters, and the relationship between Penelope and Jack, and the mysteries are always intriguing. I will definitely be reading the rest of this series, sooner rather than later. show less

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 show more 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. show less

Angel Stark is giving a reading from her book, “All My Pretty Friends” at Buy The Book bookshop. It’s a true crime story that took place among the East coast Newport rich kids. A crowd Angel had been part of. The turnout is packed and sales are sky high, during the book signing afterwards.

There is a fracas after the signing, between the author and an attendee. The sister of the murdered victim is present and isn’t happy about the book. The murder has never been found and the sister felt the book is damaging to her sister and their family.

The next day Angel is nowhere to be found. She had left the bookshop with a local fellow, and both are missing! A little later her body is found. Angel has been murdered in the same way the show more person in her true crime book was. In the investigation, some of the history of the fellow puts him in the #1 spot for suspect.

Bookshop owner, Penelope, takes up her own investigation of the case along with her secret mentor — PI Jack Shepard. Jack was murdered in the bookshop building in the 1940s and his ghost now haunts the building. Penelope is the only one who knows of him. Between Shepard’s hard-boiled PI persona and past experiences, and Penelope’s desire to catch the killer, this is a fun read. Think “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir,” only with murder involved. show less

Penelope has another author in her store and guess what? She ends up dead, only this time not in the store. Penelope decides, along with Jack, that she needs to solve the murder so none of her friends are railroaded like she almost was last book. So she starts sleuthing again and getting in trouble.

I like Penelope and Jack. There are some twists in her relationship with Jack that I really liked. He is training her and she is getting to understand his 1940's lingo. I like how Jack pushes Penelope, not only with the sleuthing but also with loosening up with her son. I like the townspeople that Penelope has gathered around her. I also am enjoying some of the romances that are in the beginning stages. Her in-laws are jerks and I'm glad see show more stood up to them.

I am looking forward to the rest of the series. show less

In this second of a series Penelope, the bookshop owner, finds herself involved in a case involving the death of a jet-setting author who had an insider's view on a notorious murder case. And she's ready to point fingers. Pen finds herself involved, along with the ghost of hard-boiled private eye Jack Shepard, who may or may not be "a bit of undigested beef" as Scrooge might say. The author smoothly handles the weird relationship between the two, giving Pen plenty of room to be the heroine, providing a neat little mystery in a small town, sufficiently different from its predecessor to avoid being characterized as overly-formulaic. Recommended.

I just can’t help loving these little quirky stories. And I still find Jack Shephard extremely appealing for a ghost. I did not find the story itself as interesting as the previous book but I like the way the characters are developing.