A Ghostly Suspect

Emma Lee Raines owns Eternal Slumber, one of two funeral homes in Sleepy Hollow, Kentucky. She's also a “Betweener” - she can communicate with the spirits of the deceased in order to help solve their murders and allow them to cross over. In A Ghostly Suspect (eighth in the Ghostly Southern Mysteries series, but my first to read), we learn that things have been quiet on the Betweener front for a while. Emma Lee has had some time to grow her business at Eternal Slumber. But then Emma Lee's psychic, Debbie Dually, comes to visit her, acting very strangely, insisting that Emma Lee admit that she can see dead people. When Debbie is found dead not far from Eternal Slumber, and her spirit comes to visit Emma Lee, it makes sense. Emma Lee has to help solve Debbie's murder, before the police pin it on her!

This is a fun book! It works well as a standalone. Even without having read others in the series, I was able to get enough of a sense of the backstory for things to make sense. And I do love the characters in Tonya Kappes' books. They're so very Southern, and they are my people. Emma Lee is a hoot. She's always skating right on the knife edge of getting herself into some serious hot water, but manages to pull herself (or have herself pulled) out of harm's way. And Granny. Have mercy. I want to go visit her, because she is a riot. She's got the men running themselves in circles over her!

The book has a little bit of everything - tension and high stakes, humor, romance, and twists and turns to keep any mystery lover happy. I didn't see the ending coming, for a fact. And that's my favorite kind of mystery, the one where I don't realize what's going to happen until BAM! It does. If you're a cozy mystery fan, you'll want to give this one a read.

Disclaimer: I received an advance reader copy from the author. All opinions here are mine, and I don't say nice things about books I don't like.