Library Journal
10/01/2022
Maureen Doherty, owner/manager of Haven House Inn on Florida's Gulf Coast, is ready to participate in her first Christmas celebration since inheriting the inn. She has a dinner and a movie plan to go with the nearby Paramount Theater's showing of old Christmas movies for the "Twelve Days of Christmas." She meets the projectionist there and orders centerpieces from Petals and Kettles, the tearoom/florist. But Officer Frank Hubbard is following her around town. He's investigating a cold case from almost 50 years earlier when a small-time hood was shot to death at the theater, and he suspects either the projectionist or the father-in-law of the tearoom owner. Both men were suspects at the time, and both are back in town. Maureen's live-in ghost, a deceased movie starlet, has stories of the men and possible money laundering. When there's a second murder at the theater, Maureen's dragged into the cold case. VERDICT The charming sequel to Be My Ghost will delight readers of paranormal cozy mysteries who enjoy quirky characters and a Christmas setting.—Lesa Holstine
Kirkus Reviews
2022-08-17
A Florida innkeeper’s latest attempt to build her haunted business is hampered by a murder.
Just because the circumstances under which she inherited the Haven House Inn in the Gulf Coast town of Haven are shrouded in obscurity doesn’t mean that Maureen Doherty won’t try her darnedest to make her new career as the inn’s owner and manager a success. And while she may not know the mysterious Penelope Josephine Gray who willed her the property, that doesn’t absolve her of the responsibility to the town’s locals to keep the century-old community hub alive. Christmas is the perfect time to build on the inn’s ongoing programming through a creative connection with Haven’s vintage theater, the Paramount, for a Twelve Days of Christmas extravaganza. Maureen gets her second-in-command, executive chef Ted Carr, to plan themed menus to complement the Paramount’s offerings in a sort of dinner-and-a-movie special. Maureen and Ted get into a groove of working with Paramount projectionist Decklin Monroe, whose history at the theater enables him to tell all the old stories, including a doozy about a patron shot midway through a flick 50 years ago. If the theater is still haunted, it’s in good company, for fashionista and ghost (but fashionista first) Lorna, Maureen’s unofficial roommate at Haven House, is accompanied by a rotating cast of spectral characters, including some of her dates. Though Ted and Maureen want to know more about the paranormal at the Paramount, a modern murder disrupts their digging. Has the past come back to haunt the present?
This ghost-infused cozy has all the pieces but just doesn’t stack up. Blame the spirit world.
