Simply Angela : The Thrill of the Haunt by E.J. Copperman

As Alison’s reputation as “the ghost lady” grows, so does her business—and not always in a way she’d like. Tourists may be flocking to her guesthouse for a chance to glimpse her resident spirits, but her special abilities are also bringing unwanted private investigation cases to her door. And she has no choice but to take a case when the local homeless man is found murdered under mysterious circumstances, just hours after asking for help in exorcising a specter.

If that weren’t enough to deal with, Alison’s other PI case soon turns fatal, as the mistress she was spying on for a jealous wife turns up dead as well. The cases seem like they couldn’t possibly be linked, but with a mountain of clues, motives and suspects—both living and dead—Alison will have to think fast before someone else checks out for good…

Series: Haunted Guesthouse #5| Publisher: Audible | Narrator: Amanda Ronconi | Length: 9 hours 23 minutes | Genre: Cozy Paranormal Contemporary Mystery | Source: Audible | Ratings: Performance 4.5 Cups Story 4 Cups

The last few books in this series have been a miss for me, thankfully, this one was a hit—in fact, it was nearly a homerun. (yeah, I know, I have no idea where the baseball analogy came from, but let’s just roll with it!).

All Alison wants to do is focus on her guesthouse and her budding relationship with Josh. Although when a woman shows up wanting Alison to investigate her husband for possibly cheating then a homeless veteran, who wanted Alison’s help dealing with a ghost, is murdered Alison, thanks to a deal she struck with one of her resident ghosts, has no choice but to take on the cases.

Throughout this series, Alison has always had a bit more on her plate than she could handle but she’s always managed to handle it gracefully but now she’s reached her limit and being known as the ‘ghost lady’ has finally pushed her over the edge. She’s still cleaning up from hurricane Sandy, trying to figure out what to turn her game room into, dealing with a guest wanting to cleanse her guesthouse of the spirits that haunt it, and someone has been scrawling warnings in red pen all over her house. There’s also two murder cases that she’s been roped into investigating. Plus, she’s having guy problems. So I understand why she’s reached her limit, although I wasn’t thoroughly behind the way she was treating Paul and Maxie.

I was really glad to see that Josh, Alison’s love-interest, is back. He’s such a fresh, fun character, and he knew Alison when she was a kid. He owns a paint store so he and Alison share the same interests and they have an interesting past. In the last few books, their relationship was starting to grow into something solid. In this book, they’re starting to have a few problems, mainly Alison hiding things from him. Although Alison doesn’t really want to tell her new boyfriend that she sees ghost.

So there were two mysteries in the book and two deaths and I have to say they were brilliantly handled. Rather than one taking away from the other, they added more depth and insight. I had an inkling about certain things that turned out to be true, but there were so many added twists that I didn’t see coming but, looking back on the clues, it all added up and made sense.

The ghost are such a huge part of this series and, while I’ve always liked Paul, in the past I’ve struggled with Maxie. She was childish and annoying although it seems like she’s finally starting to grow up.

Once again, Amanda Ronconi was a fabulous narrator. She truly does bring each character to life.

Overall, this one finally went back to what I love about this series. Even though some of the secondary characters kind of took a backseat, I really loved the direction of this novel. The romance and the mysteries were both solid and I loved seeing Alison a little unhinged because it showed her in a more human light. I also loved seeing Maxie’s growth.