The dead want Ripley Van Raden’s attention.
Two of Ripley Van Raden’s favorite things are books and ghosts. Not necessarily in that particular order. Rip, as her friends call her, guides people on a haunted tour through her hometown of Devil’s Moon, Kentucky.
Ripley is also a librarian by day. That’s where the books come in. Of course it’s no surprise that the library is haunted too. The … haunted too. The ghost of the first librarian roams the stacks of Bilson Library, sending Ripley text messages and emails. That’s the only way the ghost knows how to communicate. It’s a good thing Ripley has the unlimited data plan.
When a famous author comes to town for a book signing, he’s interested in seeing some of the spookier sides of Devil’s Moon. Ripley takes him to a haunted house that’s rumored to be haunted by a woman who places a curse on anyone who has the misfortune of walking through the door.
When the author turns up dead, Ripley must find out if it was the curse that killed him, or a real murderer. At least she has the help of hunky Brannon Landon, paranormal investigator and police officer.
The paranormal forces are much darker than Ripley ever imagined. Now Ripley must find the killer before she becomes a permanent resident of the Devil’s Moon Cemetery.
more
This review is for the audio book.
This is a difficult book for me to review because I want to say I liked it but thinking back a lot of things annoyed me. Mainly the main character I did like her but she would say on thing and promptly do the opposite or do what she said she wouldn’t do. She also has a lot of conversation with herself but ignores the ghost and for someone who sees and talks to ghosts she spent most of the time scarring herself. I liked the rest of the characters, especially glad to see Annie (the ghost from the library) didn’t disappear from the first book. I did like the mystery and with a number of suspects it did keep you guessing and it was an interesting plot. I just wish the main character was portrayed a little differently.
To encourage people back into the library, new head librarian Ripley arranges for a author to come in and sign his new book. Things don’t go well when his stalker and ex wife both come and make a scene. But it is not until later and as part of Ripley’s other job, as a ghost tour guide, that she really runs a foul of the author. After showing him a haunted house she is surprised when he doesn’t turn up for the walk, for someone so keen only a few hours ago she is surprised he missed it. Well that’s not true he did turn up, its just that somebody killed him before he could take part. Did he die because of the curse on the haunted house? Or is his killer closer to home? Like is ex wife? His stalkers? Or even his assistant? Ripley gets a creepy feeling around all three of them. But then again it could just be the higher number of sightings of the ghosts in town. Not all of them seem friendly and why does she feel pulled back to the haunted house? Can Ripley find out who killed the author?
Not sure the narrator helps with the story, she is very excitable and some parts of her narration I want to shout at her to slow down and take a breath and others to she seems to take to long a breath. If she was to work on her timing I think she would he a good narrator because she does do some good voices
I have read a lot of books in this genre by a lot of authors and I have to say that oRse Pressey is up there with the best of them, probably in my top 3. This book gets better and better the more you read. At first, Ripley was a bit boring but once the dead body appeared, the book picked up immensely. The ghost in the library using a cell phone to communicate with Ripley is a genius idea. This development alone places this series above many of the others in the genre. If you like mysteries that feature ghosts, this series was tailor-made for you.
It was a fun read and a good start to what I hope will be a good series.