The Ghost and the Dead Man's Library - Review

Reading books is one of my favorite past times, and I love to share books that I enjoyed with others. I have been thinking about it for awhile, writing a review of a book here on my blog, but I have just never seemed to get around to doing it. Well, you know, I have just decided to jump in and do it.

The Ghost and the Dead Man's Library
by: Alice Kimberly
A Haunted Bookshop Mystery - Book Three

Give me a good mystery any day, and I am happy. Although they say that once you read enough of an author, you start to see their pattern and you can tell who done it before the end, but to tell you the truth with this one, I didn't see who it was until about the same point as the main character, the end.

Penelope Thornton-McClure is the main character, a widow and single mother, who runs an independent bookstore with her aging aunt. The bookstore is "haunted" by the ghost of PI Jack Shepard, now he doesn't really do any haunting, but serves more as a friend and helper to Pen.

This book revolves around a collection of books by Edgar Allan Poe, actually it is another authors attempt to compile a complete anthology of Poe's works that becomes the focus of crime and mystery.

The author includes numerous quotes from Poe's works in the chapter titles pages, and does give some brief look into his life, but winds it in with the story and the characters very well.
My favorite thing this author does in this Bookshop Mystery series is weave the present day story into a case of the now deceased Jack Shepard, using the old case to help solve the current. The flashbacks to the old case are well written and timely, they don't disrupt the modern day story in the least, and in fact I find them to be enjoyable.

The relationship between Pen and Jack is another thing that is fun. He is like a good friend, helping her heal over the loss of her husband, dealing with being a single mom now, and moving through the work on his old cases and these new things that keep popping up.

It is a great casual read. No overt sexual encounters, no blatant violence, usually only the aftermath (finding a body). So it is a great read for teens as well as adults. I have read all three books in this series now, and enjoyed them all. Looking forward to the next in the series.