Bookshop owner Penelope Thornton-McClure and her ghostly companion must solve the case of a literary killer in this Haunted Bookshop mystery from Cleo Coyle, writing as Alice Kimberly.Pen has just received an extremely rare collection of Edgar Allan Poe’s complete works. Rumor has it a secret code, trapped within the books’ leather-bound pages, leads to buried treasure. Well, it looks like they … looks like they got the buried part right—because, as Pen sells off the valuable volumes, everyone who buys…dies.
Once these books go missing from their owners’ cold hands, Pen will need resident ghost and hard-boiled P.I. Jack Shepard to help crack the case. The police are skeptical that the deaths involved foul play—so it’s up to them to unravel these shocking endings…
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I had trouble putting this down.
This series is such an interesting twist to the paranormal/cozy cross over. You have the ghost of a PI killed in the late 1940’s haunting a modern day bookshop and only one of the co-owner’s, Penelope, can hear him and at times see him. Since she discovered that by carrying a buffalo nickel that once belonged to him in her pocket allows him to go where she goes, she doesn’t leave home without it. In this book, Pen and her aunt go to collect some items to sell in the store from an old friend of the Aunt’s, but when they discover his body things start going awry and once again it looks like Pen is going to be on the hook for the crime if she doesn’t solve it soon! Well done and very entertaining reading as the story switches from modern day to the 40’s and back again. The characters are well developed, likeable and relatable so you can’t help reading just one more chapter until you finish the book!
Love this series and it’s characters
Fun reading
I really enjoy reading this author books. It’s a light read with just enough mystery.
I enjoy reading this series.
Another great mystery! I always love a mystery in which I can’t guess the culprit until the reveal. This is one of those stories! Jack Shepherd has been dead for 50 years, but that doesn’t stop him from helping Penelope Thornton-McClure discover who murdered Peter Chesley, who recently gave Pen and her aunt Sadie an original set of Edgar Allen Poe first editions! This is a great read–you won’t be sorry!
Fun cozy. A little sad in places, but otherwise entertaining.
This series is hard to put down until you finish! Very entertaining!
Easy to read cozy mystery
Penelope, a bookshop owner, goes to an old friend of her aunt’s and is given a set of Edgar Allen Poe books. This is a famous set and could potentially have a secret map to find a treasure. People are interested in parts of the set and someone is killing people to get the books starting with an old friend of Penelope’s. Penelope is trying to find the killer, but the police think she is the killer. This is an interesting story with good characters and a great plot.
Just okay. The flashbacks that “solve” the crime were mostly just distracting, and such a coincidence that they actually ruined the story for me.
A disappointing book from Cleo Coyle.I enjoy her coffee house mystery series, but in this book except for the protagonist and the ghost, the characters seem flat and interchangeable. I figured out “who done it” halfway through the book.
This is the second book in this series I have read and enjoyed them both. They are light reading and a fun way to escape.
I’ve read several books in this series, and have enjoyed every one!
This was the third of a series but the first I’ve read. Took a little getting use to but the voice of long dead Jack with his gumshoe vernacular juxtaposed with literary Poe references give the book more depth than one might otherwise expect. Now I need to go back to the beginning.
This book kept your intrest.moving right along.the char characters are very interesting all through the book. Can’t wait to read the next book.
Loved the characters and plot. Original. Good read.