I love this series, it is so much fun and so light hearted. I listen to the books at work they help me stay awake on the night shift. I recommend them for anyone looking for a fun mystery ( )

I love this series, it is so much fun and so light hearted. I listen to the books at work they help me stay awake on the night shift. I recommend them for anyone looking for a fun mystery ( )

[bookcover:The Thrill of the Haunt|17290601]

Thrill of the Haunt, EJ Copperman

★ ★ ★ ★

Alison runs a "Haunted" Guesthouse on the South New Jersey Shore.... The house is haunted by the former owner, Maxie, and the PI she hired to protect her, Paul..... Both murdered by poison.

While out in town, Alison is approached by Everett, a now homeless vet, and is asked by him to help get rid of the ghosts who are haunting him & threatening to murder him. What he doesn't tell Alison is that one of them is his dead son Paul, who died in a motorcycle crash about 7 years prior.

When Everett is found dead in the men's bathroom of the local gas station of 47 small stab wounds, the local PITA insists that Alison vindicate Everett by finding his murderer.

Alison is also hired by a local woman to prove her husband is cheating on her, in order to force him to remain her husband.... After tailing the man, Alison finds his mistress dead & hanging in the middle of her new kitchen, but there is no suicide note, nor is there a turned over chair or stool, indicating that she had been murdered.....

I enjoyed this book so much that I read it in one afternoon..... ( )

Listened for Fun (Audible)
Overall Rating: 4.50
Story Rating: 4.50
Character Rating: 4.50

Audio Rating: 5.00 (not part of my overall rating)

First Thought when Finished: The Thrill of the Haunt by E.J. Copperman was my favorite one in the series.

Overall Thoughts: Since I have been asked a few times, I will just tell you that yes I read these out of order AND it didn't take away from my enjoyment at all. This series is one of my favorite cozy mystery series. It has great characters, fun cases, and lots of twists. It never gets boring.

Audio Thoughts:

Narrated By Amanda Ronconi / Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins

Ronconi--need I say more? Seriously if you have never listened to a book narrated by her then you are missing out! She has great pacing, emotion, and snark!

Part of my Read It, Rate It, File It Done! Reviews ( )

This book took me FOREVER to finish. I started it while I was on holiday and kept putting it down and sort of forgetting about it - I was in the midst of book binge buying and there were so many new books to admire and... ahem; "Precious" just popped into my head so I'm going to stop now.

Anyhoo... this wasn't a bad book at all. I enjoyed it, although not without reservations. Obviously I was distracted when I was trying to read it, but also, the story didn't make it hard to walk away from.

Allison, the MC, runs a guesthouse that's haunted by the previous owner, Maxie and the PI (Paul) she hired right before they were both murdered (see book 1 in the series). In return for putting on "spook shows" for the inn's guests, Allison agreed to get her PI license and allow Paul to live vicariously through her, helping her solve investigative cases. Personally I think the idea of "spook shows" is stupid, but I gloss over references to them.

I really like Allison, although she's rather immature - especially when she interacts with Maxie. She knows it though, and she's got a snarky sense of humour about it, which makes it much more palatable to read. Maxie and Paul I'm much more ambivalent about; Maxie is just childish and the author never allows her to act mature for more than a sentence or two; it grows old after 5 books. Paul seems likeable, but we only ever, EVER see one side of him - the side that wants to investigate cases. Hard to invest in someone you don't know.

The mystery was pretty excellent. About two-thirds of the way through a major clue is revealed and my first thought was "mystery solved; popular plot-device" but then the author twisted everything up and the ending was really good. I had it down to two people, but never really knew until the 'reveal' which one did it.

This series is one of those that I'm never chomping at the bit to get to, but I always enjoy once I have. It's a good series with solid plots, but missing that certain something that makes me eager to pick up the next one. ( )