Cemeteries come alive for amateur sleuth/reluctant medium Pepper Martin. Cleveland’s Garden View Cemetery is hosting a James A. Garfield commemoration. For tour guide and reluctant medium Pepper Martin this means that’s he’ll surely be hearing from the dead president himself. And when she’s assigned to help plan the event with know-it-all volunteer and Garfield fanatic Marjorie Klinker, she’ll … Marjorie Klinker, she’ll wish Marjorie were dead…too bad someone beats Pepper to it.
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Pepper is teamed up with the most obnoxious volunteer at the cemetery to put a President Garfield Commemoration together. Pepper whines a lot about having to work with spiteful and mean Marjorie Klinker. Marjorie constantly drones on about how she is related to James A. Garfield, twentieth President, via an affair and resulting illegitimate offspring. Marjorie makes it clear to Pepper that she will be her “go-fer” in the commemoration efforts and starts piling it on Pepper. So when Pepper gets a voice-mail first thing in the morning from Marjorie, she takes her time getting over to the memorial. When she does arrive she finds Marjorie having taken a dive off the upper balcony onto the floor below at the foot of the Garfield statue. The police determine there was a struggle and Marjorie was sent flying over the balcony.
Usually Pepper is approached by the dead to help them with something unfinished. But Pepper is surprised that Marjorie isn’t the ghost coming to her, but rather the ghost of President Garfield who stays in the memorial carrying on the presidential work that was cut short by a stalker turned shooter. Garfield wants the ruckus to stop so he can work! So why does Pepper dig into who killed Marjorie? Because she just broke up with her police boyfriend, Quinn who couldn’t accept that she sees and talks to dead people. Quinn makes it very clear that she is meddlesome, so she is determined to solve Marjorie’s murder before him. Pepper also has a stalker since the previous book where she was in a reality show, Cemetery Survivor, about restoring a near-by cemetery. The stalker is getting closer and she now has a face associated with her fears.
I had not read any of the Pepper Martin series before and it is easy to pick up the background information. Pepper is used to living the high life until her dad went to jail for insurance fraud, so she is struggling to make a living as the only paid guide at the cemetery. Imagine Paris Hilton having to get a real job and actually work and you have Pepper’s situation down. Pepper will appeal to some but not all readers. She is young, brash, and a bit superficial – although she is working on that. The stand-out character in this book is President Garfield himself. I felt as though the 1880’s social moors were brought to life not to mention Garfield’s commanding personality in this one character. Well done! The “ex” is sufficiently portrayed as negative in attitude towards Pepper, which spurs her on. There is an FBI agent that might have potential in future books that surfaces.
This is a fast and easy read with a sufficient plot to carry the reader through. The plot actually has several threads going but they all wrap up well. The Garfield memorial provides a good setting within the cemetery itself and Pepper’s investigating is on par for a cozy. The big reveal of the murderer had just enough suspense and the wrap-up of the stalker sub plot was perhaps the best scene in the book.
If you are looking for a light and easy spooky read (similar to Kate Collins’ Flower Shop Mysteries) this may be just what you are looking for.