Avery Morgan has been hired to breathe new life into the Portage Path Women’s Club, but first she’ll have to deal with a dead body and a meddling ghost.Avery Morgan has had a harrowing first week on the job as manager of the Portage Path Woman’s Club. Not only is she in charge of a grand old home with a mountain of maintenance problems and scheduling nightmares–thanks to a recent fire in the … recent fire in the Marigold meeting room–but she’s also got Muriel Sadler to deal with. Muriel is the current president of the club, the one “nay” vote when the rest of the board voted “aye” to hiring Avery.
After a morning of dealing with another one of Muriel’s snits and a meeting with the delicious and delightfully unsettling Ben Harkness, who will be handling renovations in the fire-damaged portions of the house, the last thing Avery needs is for one of the fuses to blow. Again.
She grabs her handy flashlight and heads into the basement, where she stumbles across Muriel’s body. She also stumbles across an unexpected helper, Clemmie Bow, the ghost of a young woman who was accidentally killed in the building almost a hundred years ago.
Together Clemmie and Avery are determined to solve Muriel’s murder before the killer sends Avery to join Clemmie on the other side.
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This was a cute start to a new cozy series. Avery has moved to small town Ohio to rejuvenate a women’s club. The president of the club is not happy she got the job and is determined to give the job to her granddaughter. One night she stumbles across a dead body and a ghost. The ladies of the club ask her to solve the crime. I liked the small town setting and the women’s club is an interesting backdrop. The characters are fun and there is a nice cross section of generations. The mystery was good and there were enough suspects to make it interesting. I was able to figure out the who did it and I did find the motive weak. It was a quick and easy read. Enjoy
This was a nice start to a series. If you like cozy mysteries that also has a ghost, then this is the book for you! It was an enjoyable easy book
Oh i so loved this one…..i love paranormal cozy mystery with ghost from the ’20 but for me it’s the first time i get one with a female ghost from that time and it was just great.One detail is also that in this story ghost can touch people which can be funny.
Really i love Avery and i sure would love to meet her aunt as well , she is a great character who can see what is important and act. Clemmie is funny i loved to read her “slang” and she is just perfect sidekick for Avery
i had a great time with this book i really plan to have teh next one as soon as i’m able to
Synopsis:
Avery Morgan has been hired to breathe new life into the Portage Path Women’s Club, but first she’ll have to deal with a dead body and a meddling ghost.
Avery Morgan has had a harrowing first week on the job as manager of the Portage Path Woman’s Club. Not only is she in charge of a grand old home with a mountain of maintenance problems and scheduling nightmares–thanks to a recent fire in the Marigold meeting room–but she’s also got Muriel Sadler to deal with. Muriel is the current president of the club, the one “nay” vote when
the rest of the board voted “aye” to hiring Avery.
After a morning of dealing with another one of Muriel’s snits and a meeting with the delicious and delightfully unsettling Ben Harkness, who will be handling renovations in the fire-damaged portions of the house, the last thing Avery needs is for one of the fuses to blow. Again.
She grabs her handy flashlight and heads into the basement, where she stumbles across Muriel’s body. She also stumbles across an unexpected helper, Clemmie Bow, the ghost of a young woman who was accidentally killed in the building almost a hundred years ago.
Together the Clemmie and Avery are determined to solve Muriel’s murder before the killer sends Avery to join Clemmie on the other side. (Goodreads)
Review:
The characters are well developed and well rounded. Avery has a new job: manager of the Portage Path Woman’s Club. She has her hands full learning the ropes and dealing with Muriel, the club president. Muriel is mean, unhappy and does not like many people. Avery has no idea how she is going to get along with Muriel, it will not be easy. When she finds Muriel dead, she knows that things have gone from bad to worse. Now, on top of everything else she has going on, she has to try and figure out the killer. Ske will have help from Sergeant Alterman, known to his friends as Oz, and some of the women from the Portage Path Woman’ Club. And the resident ghost, Clemmie, that only Avery can see. I personally would have liked Clemmie to be more involved in the book. That is only my opinion and others may not agree with me.
The author is very talented in her descriptive writing and these descriptions pulled me into the story from the very beginning. The writing style flows smoothly and the book was a quick easy read. The mystery was well plotted and not easily solved. I was not completely sure of the culprit until it was revealed at the end.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well crafted cozy mystery. And if you like a ghost in your mystery, like I do, grab this book and enjoy.
Avery Morgan moves to Ohio as the new business manager of the Portage Path Women’s Club. The membership numbers keep going down to the point the club is now endangered. Her new boss, Muriel, is the President of the club and quite difficult. The only person on the board not to approve Avery’s hiring is doing everything she can to make Avery’s life miserable. The author did a spectacular job writing a pretty mean character in Muriel.
Muriel managed to make everyone’s lives nightmarish. Her words and actions caused blood to boil, mean thoughts to enter minds, and, for someone, the delight of her demise. As a reader, Muriel is one of those characters that you’ll love to hate. She may even remind a reader of someone they’ve encountered in real life. Muriel was horrible and the author wrote her in such a way that you couldn’t help but feel bad for those she abused, as well as angry on their behalf. Muriel isn’t the only character written this well.
Avery, Oz, Jack, Clemmie, the rest of the club, and all the side character were equally written well. You could feel Avery’s frustration at Muriel, her sadness at the treatment of the kitchen staff, and she disbelief in her ability to see ghosts. Oz didn’t make many appearances but he was written as a well-respected and capable police officer with what could be a romantic side. Jack is a restorationist with secrets, yet he’s willing to aid Avery in her quest for justice against Muriel. Clemmie was written with period characteristics, clothes, and speech. I was able to visualize her and “hear” her talk in a way we don’t hear anymore.
The world building was great. I envisioned myself right smack dab in the middle of the mansion with Avery, Clemmie, and the rest of the club members. I enjoyed the descriptive text, providing me with enough description to create the scenes myself, Not having enough doesn’t allow me to connect to the characters, the setting, or the book and having too much description makes me feel like they were included as filler. This books had the perfect amount of description.
The mystery itself was intricate, full of twists, turns, and red herrings. I enjoyed trying to figure out who may have been the culprit. I had a feeling I knew who the murderer was but I was never convinced I had the clues in order. The author did a great job masquerading the guilty person and not making things obvious or too easy to guess. This is a fun who-dun-it and I look forward to the next book.
I was provided a copy of this book to read.
I’ve been on quite a cozy paranormal kick, but that isn’t really surprising as it’s my second favorite genre right after urban fantasy. It didn’t take long to get involved in the plot, and I could see everything that was happening. I feel like I’ve read about Lily Dale before, but that’s for another review. The characters were fun and engaging, the plot was interesting without being overwhelming, and above all it was well-written. I had an inkling I knew who had committed the murder, but I didn’t see the reason why. The author, though, was very good at not revealing too much and spoiling the villain. I am definitely going to read the next one. Highly recommend. I was provided a complimentary copy which I voluntarily reviewed.