Missing money, a dead body, and a new ghostly hitchhiker.Oliver Atkinson should be getting excited his fortieth birthday party. Instead he meets Toni, a young woman about to embark on a charity run. When her boyfriend is found murdered and she is the prime suspect, Charlie Morningside insists his long distant relative is innocent of murder. Although Charlie has been dead since 1921 so he is not … is not the most reliable witness.
With the help of Amanda, the con woman who seems to enjoy turning his world upside down, Oliver has to dig deep to find who would want the victim dead. Unfortunately all roads lead back to Toni and as evidence starts to mount up Oliver has to decide whether to follow the trail of clues or Charlie’s gut.
At least no one is trying to kill him this time. Yet.
Pick up your copy of the 4th book in this cozy mystery series now.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Fun!
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2020
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Another excellent ghostly hitchhiking book! Oliver and his family are wonderful character as are Alice, Amanda, and Charlie. This mystery is well written with plenty of twists and surprises to keep you and Oliver on your toes. I received an ARC and this is my honest opinion. I definitely recommend this author to cozy mystery lovers!
Oliver’s newest hitchhiker is a 15-year-old boy who’s appeared to defend a distant descendant who’s been accused of murder and fraud. Charlie Morningside died in 1922 and has come back to help his many-greats niece, Toni Schaef, who’s been accused of murdering her boyfriend in the pink bus they occupied together. And while she vigorously defends her innocence, the fact that that she’s less than forthcoming with the truth doesn’t help her case.
However, Charlie will have none of this, so Oliver and Amanda, who has ventured back to New Zealand for her grandmother’s Alice’s birthday party, set about investigating. Toni’s bid to honor her mother’s cancer death with a run around the island to raise awareness funds has attracted press attention, and, as the two of them discover, a trio of criminals as well, including Darcy, a woman whom Toni considers an old friend, but Darcy views more as an ATM.
Toni’s airy naivete doesn’t help matters – a pink-bus-dwelling twenty-something New Ager, she can’t bring herself to believe Darcy stole from her, nor that she hadn’t found true love in only three months with the murdered boyfriend, instead of a con artist who zoomed in on a target.
However, as Toni becomes a likelier suspect, Oliver learns something stunning: Toni also has a hitchhiker, although she calls them a rebounder. Their identity is even more surprising: Dorothy, who Toni refers to as “my great-something-grandmother.” In other words, Charlie’s kid sister.
Although Oliver’s not pleased to be caught in a century-old case of sibling rivalry, the Morningsides prove themselves a formidable pair, working together even when it seems they’re at cross-purposes. Getting to the bottom of this twisted tale of theft and revenge is a most satisfying family excursion.
I received a review copy from the author at my request and this is my honest opinion. Another great read in the Hitchhiker series. Reading this book was like visiting old friends that you haven’t seen in a while and you have such a good time catching up on all that has been going on since your last visit. And with Oliver and his “friends” that is always an interesting proposition.
I love this series because while it is a cozy mystery and it does require some suspension of disbelief (dead people living in Oliver’s head!!) it is a bit more gritty and edgy than the typical cozy. There is a bit more “on-screen” violence than is normal but it is not overdone. And as is typical of the genre, there is very little, if any, profanity, and no sex scenes, gratuitous or otherwise.
Mr. Strong included something in this book that I enjoyed. (Please remember that I’m easily entertained!) There is a spin-off from this series called the Silvermoon Retirement Village Mysteries. In the last book from that series, Hip Flask and Hanging, Alice and her friend, Vanessa are at the train station where they run into Oliver. Then there are a couple of occasions where they again interact with Oliver. In Murder in Pink, we get to see those incidents, but they are told from Oliver’s point of view this time. It was a little thing, but I enjoyed it.
If you haven’t read any of the Murder In series, you need to. They are thoroughly enjoyable.
Oliver Atkinson hears voices in his head, which belong to long dead folks who need his help. This mystery is brilliantly constructed, with a multitude of plot twists and suspects. Some of the characters are laugh-out-loud funny, and all are well-developed and believable. This is the first book I’ve read in this series, and it was easy to follow the story. It was an enjoyable read and I’m looking forward to future installments. I received this book free and chose to make a voluntary, unbiased review.
Oliver faces another ghostly hitchhiker with a mission. Charlie want to help his niece.
A tangled encounter brings school foes, deceased siblings, and a bevy of crooks into play with lethal consequences and interference by a politician or two.
Action packed mayhem and drama, with clever ghosts and non dead folks trying to assist