Give up the Ghost (Ghost Detective Book 2)

GIVE UP THE GHOST : (Ghost Detective Series Book #2) : Jane Hinchey

MADNESS, MAYHEM, MURDER, MYSTERIES & MEEEEEEEEEOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW’S

Another great light-hearted romp from Queen of Cozy’s Jane Hinchey whose a good clean read without the over the top sex scenes & bad language. A Great for any age.

Brilliant, entertaining characters written to perfection as always, this is an area Ms Hinchey has always excelled in. Her main characters, secondary & third tier characters are so good, especially those who play minor roles, but you love to hate. There’s just something about a Hinchey ‘Bad Guy’, even the one’s masquerading as ‘Good Guy’s hiding behind a uniform and a badge.

In this book we see Audrey hitting her stride (and the floor and falling over the railing over the balcony and the pilates mat in a heap and just about everything else in between) in her desire to become a fully fledged PI as her skills improve to bring about her 300+ hours of supervision by Detective Sexy Cowboy Hot Pants aka Kade Galloway and while she has great instincts, Audrey needs some serious training & guidance by the professionals if she’s to succeed in gaining her PI licence & acquire all the skills needed to run & operate Delaney Investigations properly, otherwise she may not live to see those dreams come true!

Unfortunately I’ve found 2 things a little off putting & 1 very unnerving about this book.
The 1st is the idea that anyone would hire a PI to find a lost gold fish. Well, unless it was rare breed or used as a breeding stud specimen, but its not, its just a pet gold fish in a bowl! More often than not, if a gold fish goes missing, its usually because they were found belly up, given a royal flush & send off down the porcelain bowl into a haven of happiness in amphibian Heaven by a member in the household. But to shell out the expenditure it would require to hire a PI Agency, just seems ludicrous! Sorry Jane.

And the 2nd issue, I’m not sure why a lunch break friend who hasn’t known their next door work neighbour very long or well, would hire a PI, when the police have just began investigating the crime to find out ‘Who Done It’! I understand turning to a PI if the cops came up empty handed, but considering the incident had just occurred and Audrey was hired as the police left the scene, it too seem a little excessive to me and over the top!

Usually I believe Ms Hinchey’s writing to be of a much superior standard, especially in regards to storyline, plots & content. It had me wondering if they were the first or only ideas that popped into Jane’s head & she ran with it, wanting to capitalize on the huge success of the first book in the series being a #1 on the Cozy top seller list, and wanting to get a second book out to the fans asap. Authors are often placed under great pressure from fans demanding unrealistic expectations in wanting the next book now! I hope this was not the case here.
Was this book too rushed? And did this pressure process bring this talented highly skilled much loved Aussie author’s usually high quality & quantity standards down a fraction? Possibly, but I’ll let you be your own judge.
I prefer authors take an extra few days / weeks or even a month and give us the reader the very best possible book they can write, rather than rush it out with a lower content of quality & quantity. And I’d rather quality over quantity any day too.
If this was the case Jane, Please put a poll to your Little Devil’s and ask what they’d prefer, I’m sure you’ll find most would agree with me, wanting the best for and of you.

And now for Point # 3). I know this is a light-hearted comedy cozy romp, but this is the second book now where Audrey thinks she’s a private investigator just because she now owns Delaney Investigations & solved a huge case, in her best friend, Ben’s murder! But in reality, Audrey has came close to being killed, more than once, has no licence, absolutely no training whatsoever, nor is she particularly guided by anyone, doesn’t have a partner as such, often at times going off on her own, not telling g anyone where she’s going, causing jeopardy, not only to herself, but putting everybody else around her in danger too by charging headlong into situations where she really has no right being. How many times in 2 books has she been hospitalized, needed rescuing or in way too deep in an extremely dangerous situation?
Honestly I’ve lost count and for an intelligent women, its completely & utter madness & reckless!

As lovable as Fitz is, she has no experience with firearms or the safe handling of a weapon, no experience with dangerous driving conditions or high speed driving or pursuits, no experience in hostage situations or negotiations, she only knows minimal self defence knowledge and the tactic Audrey uses, a knee to the family jewels, the majority of self defense trainers advise NOT to use as your 1st line of defense as it often fails, many men are able to get up & shake it off due to pumping adrenaline, the fight & flight response and growing up with reoccurring impacts to that region over the years & often the victim ends up on the losing end. And while yes, Ben her BFF was both a police officer and a private investigator, he is no longer corporeal and can not physically help her, (nor is he usually around when Fitz gets into trouble). None of this gives her the skills to investgate properly, especially without a valid PI Licence (which I’m sure would be classified as illegal anyway), but I find this very reckless and quite immature & without a Private Investigator’s licence & thorough training Audrey shouldn’t even be investigating anything other than wrapping up the case files Ben had pending & open when he died.

Its also extremely irresponsible of both Ben & Kade to encourage her to continue investigating serious cases like Armed Robbery & Murder without formal training and both men have a ‘Duty of Care’ as Officers of the Law to keep people, the community & Audrey safe, this is a serious issue, Kade sould be in serious trouble for, including suspension.
Delaney Investigations has NO License Investigators.
Audrey playing Detective/Investigator should not be encouraged other than in supervised training senarios, especially as Audrey has no active powers of magic for protection other than being able to see & communicate with ghosts & a cat.

I know this is just a light-hearted cozy, but it’s totally illogical & dangerous. I hate writing this, as Jane is a favourite author/friend and someone I’ve followed since she released her 1st book, plus I own every book she’s ever published including all but 2 updated series covers, she’s that good, but I have a few issues with this story and will deduct points accordingly for it.

I hope book 3 see’s a return to more conventional, smarter & believable cases (even though murder & armed robbery are believable) and I want to see Audrey as the smart, intelligent woman she is, not acting like some dumb blonde ditz who’ll jump in head first without considering all the facts, the danger & without training, precautions or back up. Not even the Police go in without back up or reporting back to base where they are, what they’ve seen & what they’re doing.

I want to read stories that’ll keep the reader more invested & intrigued with realistic storylines, apart from these 3 aspects, but in saying all that, ‘Give Up The Ghost’ is still an enjoyable read thats light, easy & refreshing with loads of classic Audrey Fitzgerald clumsy oaf situations that only a character like her can find herself in & that’ll have you roaring in fits of hilarious laughter. Not as awesome as its predecessor, which was just beyond brilliant, but I do recommend both the author, this book & her other incredible series too.

Great characters, with hilariously funny laughing out loud moments (loved the Pilates scene & the one between Ben, Myra, Fitz with Kade looking on).
Good writing & top editing with only 3 mistakes picked up in the Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book!

I received an ARC of this book from the author and as always this is my fair, honest and impartial review.

I RATE GIVE UP THE GHOST 3.5 OUT OF 5

Reviewed By : Jewelz Pederick.
From The
(Bye Love From The Crazy Australian Bookworm)!

I enjoyed reading this second book in this series, it has a good storyline. The interaction and chemistry between the characters is great, this book is entertaining and action packed. I can’t wait for more from this author. I received this book as a FREE ARC copy to read and I voluntarily leave this review.

The highly anticipated second book of this paranormal series is here!! Audrey Fitzgerald, her best friend/private investigator, Ben, and the always hungry cat, Thor are on the trail of a murder and bank robbery in her town in this latest caper. Audrey got caught up in a bank robbery while getting the final business transfer paperwork taken care of for her new PI business. After a suspicious auto accident as a result of her possible clumsiness, Audrey goes over to the Nether & Void shop to get some relief from her auto accident injuries and some information regarding a murder of a psychic that was featured on the local news. Audrey and Ben believe the murder and the bank robbery are tied to each other, so they are on the case to solve these two mysteries before Audrey becomes the latest breaking newsworthy story.

This is an excellent paranormal story with great quirky characters with attitude along with plenty of snark and laughs, Audrey is a sassy woman with some serious self-defense skills while being a klutz in her everyday life. Ben is the loyal spiritual private investigator best friend and Thor, the talented cat who can dial a cell phone and communicate with Ben and Audrey. This story is well-written with a great predictable ending that works for these two adventures. Detective Kade Galloway is a great addition to Audrey’s professional and romantic world, that sets the stage of an awkward moments of romance full of laughs and possibilities.

I love this second book better than the first one, Ms. Hinchey found her paranormal niche with this series. It is a funny, full of snappy conversations, that keeps my interest in this mystery that I hated to see the ending so soon. Another plus is that she did keep the bathroom antics to a minimum, which is a nice break for this reader. I am very happy that Audrey is growing up as a private investigator along getting a much needed love life in this storyline. She and Kade will make an interesting duo in their professional and personal lives in their future adventures.
I hope there will be a third book in this highly entertaining paranormal series that will come out this year. I cannot get enough of Audrey, Ben, Kade, and of course, Thor in this fantastic series. A five star rating for this wonderful weekend read!!

Oh my gosh, I thought Ghost Mortem was good, but I think this one is even better!! I could not put it down, and I kept bursting out laughing. Audrey is my hero, I am clumsy just like her. I could see so many things happening to myself lol! This case was extremely interesting, and it was hard to know who did it! And the ending…OH MY GOSH! I can’t wait for the next one in the series. Best new series by far!!