This book will be perfect for lovers of the combination of cozy and creepy! Anything with a haunted element is always a win!

This was a cute start to a new cozy series. Avery has moved to small town Ohio to rejuvenate a women's club. The president of the club is not happy she got the job and is determined to give the job to her granddaughter. One night she stumbles across a dead body and a ghost. The ladies of the club ask her to solve the crime. I liked the small town setting and the women's club is an interesting backdrop. The characters are fun and there is a nice cross section of generations. The mystery was good and there were enough suspects to make it interesting. I was able to figure out the who did it and I did find the motive weak. It was a quick and easy read. Enjoy

Brought to you by OBS Reviewer Daniele

Haunted Homicide is the delightful debut in the Haunted Mansion Cozy Mystery series by Lucy Ness (also known as Kylie Logan). It’s wonderful manor setting, focus on the past and present, lively ghost, fun protagonist, and intricate mystery make it a worthy read. I cannot wait to read the next book.

Avery leaves her home in upstate New York to take a job managing the Portage Path Women’s Club in Ohio, hoping for a fresh start. All but one board member, the president Muriel, voted in favor of hiring Avery, and Muriel is now out to make her life miserable. When Avery finds Muriel’s body in the club’s basement, and discovers the resident ghost Clemmie, she learns that just about everyone associated with Muriel has a motive for murder. With Clemmie’s help, she investigates to find the killer to save the club and her own future.

I really like Avery. She is the perfect balance of intelligence and curiosity without being annoyingly nosy or too stupid to live. I appreciate that she does not work against the police. Readers are introduced to local detective Oz, and whether he and Avery develop a romantic relationship remains to be seen, but their interplay is entertaining. The other characters are equally as well developed and add interesting variety to the story. I am particularly interested in learning more of Clemmie’s back story. I am sure there is a great mystery to be solved there.

Ness’s easy writing makes Muriel easy to dislike, and there are lots of clues and suspects for Avery to sort through. I vacillated between suspects and did not figure out whodunit until almost the big reveal, and I enjoyed investigating alongside Avery.

Haunted Homicide is a lot of fun, perfect for traditional and paranormal cozy readers. I look forward to many more adventures featuring Avery and Clemmie. Highly recommended.

This is a fun new read and is book 1 in the Haunted Mansion Mystery series. Avery has been hired by the Portage Path's Women's club to bring it into the 21st century. The club president wanted her daughter to get the position but the rest of the committee chose Avery. Now the President is dead, her family is trying to get as much out of the club as possible and there is a ghost in the middle of the case. Clemmie has been in the building for a 100 years and knows all the goings on. Paranormal fans will enjoy this light read. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Title: Haunted Homicide

Series: A Haunted Mansion Mystery #1

Author: Lucy Ness

Publisher: Berkley

Format: Paperback, 304 pages, was given a netgalley ebook, bought the paperback

Published: Sept. 29, 2020

Setting: Portage Path, Ohio

Read An Excerpt: here

Buy it: Amazon Barnes

The minute Avery Morgan stepped foot in the historic mansion, home of the Portage Path Woman’s Club, she knew there were issues.

Gone were the members who hosted tea parties, worked on their needlework, discussed politics and history. Besides the dwindling membership was the challenge of restoring the Marigold Room after a fire.

Before she even unpacked, Jack Harkness, the restorationist, arrived to determine the damages and offer an estimate. Then she meets Quentin Cruze, the chef, and Geneva, the waitress, who have very little to do and both dislike working with Muriel, the club president. She was always trying to cut corners and that makes it difficult for the chef. Then there’s the constant threat that Quentin and Geneva will be fired just like Bill, the maintenance man.

Avery steps right into the role of the club’s business manager by attending a chamber of commerce meeting in hopes of promoting the club. When she returns from the grocery store and arrives back at the club (where she lives) she sees that her room has been searched and is a mess. Next thing she knows the lights go out. While searching for a fuse box in the basement, she stumbles on Muriel’s body. If that isn’t enough to deal with, she comes face to face with the ghost of a young woman. At first Avery doesn’t believe the young woman is a ghost, even though her aunt is a Lily Dale medium.

The police are notified and the investigation begins. She hasn’t even gotten over the shock of finding Muriel and trying to figure out the strange appearances and disappearances of the young woman in the basement when she’s asked by the board to help figure out who killed Muriel. Avery intuitively begins to take a closer look at the women she’s working for. She notices bruises on Patricia, for one. Then there’s the quick transition electing Agnes as the next club president. Muriel wasn’t even buried yet. One asks if Muriel’s death was motivated by everyone wanting Agnes as president. That’s what Avery has to figure out.

It will take Avery’s quick thinking, her ghostly side-kick, and a little assistance from Sergeant Alterman and Jack to solve this case.

I loved this mystery before I even read it. I admit it, the book cover is the first thing that draws me in and if a ghost is a character, that’s an added plus. If she’s a flapper, I’m sold three times. This mystery was filled with characters with personality, lots of secrets, a possible relationship, and a lot of twists and turns. I did think electing Agnes so quickly was uncaring of the club members. She might have been a difficult person to deal with, but you can wait until she’s buried. Loved the interaction between Avery and the ghost. I do hope more of her background is shared and that she can interact with the Sergeant, as well. It would be interesting to see the club come to life when everyone leaves. There is such a powerful energy with that type of venue.

four bottles of gin out of five

Denise Fleischer

gottawritenetwork.wordpress.com

Nov. 14, 2020

Haunted Homicide: A Haunted Mansion Mystery By Lucy Ness
Review by Sandra Murphy

The Portage Path Woman’s Club is housed in an old mansion. While an imposing building, it’s in dire need of repair as is the membership list of the club. Members used to visit regularly for lunch, afternoon tea, to work jigsaw puzzles or other ladylike pursuits. Now, diners and visitors are a rare sight. Muriel Sadler is the newly elected president of the club, and she’s determined to bring the club back to all its glory.

Avery Morgan is the latest in a long string of club managers. The choice to hire Avery had one nay vote—Muriel’s. She’s determined to make Avery quit. It just so happens, Muriel’s granddaughter is out of work—again. She feels club manager would be just the job for her and Muriel agrees. None of the other board members do.

A recent fire in the records room adds to the repairs needed. The cause is carelessness on the part of a member, and Muriel isn’t about to let that go without frequent and loud comments, always hurtful. Another of the problems is fuses blowing at the most inconvenient times. Avery has to make a trip to the musty, moldy basement to replace the latest blowout. Although flashlights are stashed in every room for just this reason, no one seems to replace the batteries. With a weak beam as her only light, Avery heads to the basement in search of the fuse box. Instead she receives two shocks—Muriel’s body is on the stairs, tossed down like so much trash—and there’s someone else in the basement. A young woman, dressed in period clothes, offers her help but can’t be found when the police arrive.

With no other working explanation, Avery is forced to admit the young woman, Clemmie, is a ghost. With the ghost’s help plus that of the hunky restoration specialist, Avery just might be able to find out the truth of who was not only behind Muriel’s death but Clemmie’s, a hundred years ago.

Good looking guys are in plentiful supply as Sergeant Alterman is the responding detective. Adding to the difficulties of the cases, keys to the mansion were given out freely to board members, never collected when terms ended. There’s new kitchen help, the fired gardener, and old grudges and secrets to consider, if anyone will talk.

This looks to be a new favorite series. Clemmie is delighted to find someone who can see and hear her after years of her own company. Alterman may be promising as a romantic interest for Avery. I look forward to the next book, Phantoms and Felonies, coming in March 2021.

Haunted Homicide is an apt description of the harrowing events in this cozy mystery by Lucy Ness. Avery Morgan has been hired to renovate and run the Portage Path Women's Club. A fire in the Marigold room shut things down for a while, making scheduling meetings and events an exercise in juggling. She's quickly over her head dealing with one repair job after another and keeping the peace between the strong, opinionated club members. One gives her an especially hard time - Muriel Sadler, club president and the only one who voted against hiring Avery. Avery does enjoy working with the handy man, Ben Harkness, but even that can't make up for the trouble Muriel is causing. As Avery heads down to the basement to replace yet another fuse, she trips over a body that turns out to be Muriel. She also nearly trips over another being that turns out to be Clemmie Bow who helps Avery try to find out who killed Muriel. The interesting thing is that Clemmie is a ghost. She was accidentally killed in the building over a century ago. She and Avery must work quickly to find Muriel's murderer before Avery is the next to go.

Haunted Homicide is the first of a two book series. The characters are fun to read and the ghost and murder add a little depth to this cozy mystery. Add this to your TBR pile and enjoy an exciting new author. Thank you for the opportunity to read the ARC.

Avery Morgan moves to Ohio as the new business manager of the Portage Path Women's Club. The membership numbers keep going down to the point the club is now endangered. Her new boss, Muriel, is the President of the club and quite difficult. The only person on the board not to approve Avery's hiring is doing everything she can to make Avery's life miserable. The author did a spectacular job writing a pretty mean character in Muriel.

Muriel managed to make everyone's lives nightmarish. Her words and actions caused blood to boil, mean thoughts to enter minds, and, for someone, the delight of her demise. As a reader, Muriel is one of those characters that you'll love to hate. She may even remind a reader of someone they've encountered in real life. Muriel was horrible and the author wrote her in such a way that you couldn't help but feel bad for those she abused, as well as angry on their behalf. Muriel isn't the only character written this well.

Avery, Oz, Jack, Clemmie, the rest of the club, and all the side character were equally written well. You could feel Avery's frustration at Muriel, her sadness at the treatment of the kitchen staff, and she disbelief in her ability to see ghosts. Oz didn't make many appearances but he was written as a well-respected and capable police officer with what could be a romantic side. Jack is a restorationist with secrets, yet he's willing to aid Avery in her quest for justice against Muriel. Clemmie was written with period characteristics, clothes, and speech. I was able to visualize her and "hear" her talk in a way we don't hear anymore.

The world building was great. I envisioned myself right smack dab in the middle of the mansion with Avery, Clemmie, and the rest of the club members. I enjoyed the descriptive text, providing me with enough description to create the scenes myself, Not having enough doesn't allow me to connect to the characters, the setting, or the book and having too much description makes me feel like they were included as filler. This books had the perfect amount of description.

The mystery itself was intricate, full of twists, turns, and red herrings. I enjoyed trying to figure out who may have been the culprit. I had a feeling I knew who the murderer was but I was never convinced I had the clues in order. The author did a great job masquerading the guilty person and not making things obvious or too easy to guess. This is a fun who-dun-it and I look forward to the next book.

I was provided a copy of this book to read.

Well this was just fun! Maybe not my absolute favorite or most memorable read of the year but from start to finish it was a book I thoroughly enjoyed reading. Avery is taking over as business manager for an established women's club that happens to reside in an old mansion. And Avery just happens to have an interesting background. She grew up in a small town in New York state - and not just any small town but the small town of Lily Dale complete with mediums, seances and all things other worldly. I thoroughly enjoyed that she had this background that made her fairly knowledgable but at the same time had a serious dose of skepticism. It proves useful when she found herself face to face with Clemmie Bow a dashing young ghost in her most glamourous 1920s flapper style. I'm sincerely hoping we learn a bit more about Clemmie as the series progresses and she takes a bit more of an active role.

This being a women's club the politics and secrets are flowing at a pretty intense rate and when the thoroughly unlikable president Muriel Sadler is murdered no one is too shocked. But on the other hand who disliked Muriel enough to kill her? There's a lot to set up here and a lot of characters to introduce so at times the mystery felt a little haphazard. The bulk of the ending wasn't a huge surprise but the author did manage to to sneak a few unexpected reveals in. While it wasn't perfect I was satisfied with the ending and am excited to see where the series goes in the future. Avery is a likable main character with a decent amount of common sense and I do love a good ghost sidekick!

I’ve been on quite a cozy paranormal kick, but that isn’t really surprising as it’s my second favorite genre right after urban fantasy. It didn’t take long to get involved in the plot, and I could see everything that was happening. I feel like I’ve read about Lily Dale before, but that’s for another review. The characters were fun and engaging, the plot was interesting without being overwhelming, and above all it was well-written. I had an inkling I knew who had committed the murder, but I didn’t see the reason why. The author, though, was very good at not revealing too much and spoiling the villain. I am definitely going to read the next one. Highly recommend. I was provided a complimentary copy which I voluntarily reviewed.

I love ghosts, so when I saw the release of this novel, I was immediately very curious to know what it was all about!

Avery’s just been hired and she’s very excited about this new job. Unfortunately, while everyone welcomes her, this is not the case for the club’s president: Muriel. But well, Muriel seems to hate everyone and it’s mutual. So when she’s found dead, the women of the club mandate Avery to find out who the murderer is! If the police investigate, our heroine will be helped by a ghost to find out the truth. That’s also how she will learn the secrets of the club, from each of the women until the much sought-after truth explodes.

It was a nice enough novel, although maybe I was expecting something more. Anyway, I had a great time and it was a pleasure to meet Every, but also Ben and Oz, the cop investigating the murder.

A perfect novel for a light read.

What a fun and charming start to a murder mystery series. Avery our main character is fun smart and a newfound clairvoyant. I adore her relationship with Clemmie the resident ghost and look forward to figuring out what happened to her. They mystery was intriguing if a bit rushed. Overall Haunted House is an amusing and cozy first book to a promising new mystery series that will sure to please anyone looking for a great book to curl up with for a while.

This was a well crafted fluffy murder mystery.

The first time Avery steps into her job at Portage Path Women's Club, she finds out that there had been a fire. The next night she discovers a ghost and her boss's dead body. As murder can be seen as hurting the club, club's committee tells her to investigate the murder. Using her new found medium powers, she gets the ghost, Clemmie to help her.

I really enjoyed this book. Avery is smart and quick on her toes. I wonder if her medium powers are going to be explored in last books. Her friendship with Clemmie is sweet but I felt sorry for Clemmie having her life cut short and being stuck in that house.

There might be a love triangle (or square) that I'm crossing my fingers doesn't develop in the next book. Ben and his maybe fiance doesn't have to be explored. They can never be spoken of again.

This review is based on an advanced reading copy provided through Netgalley for an honest review.

An excellent start to a new series. The characters are fun and the story moves along at a pace that keeps you going. Avery is smart, funny and interesting. The addition of the ghost was nice without being overwhelming. I look forward to the second book.

This was a fun start to a new series I am looking forward to reading more of!

Avery is hired to manage a Women's Club. Her first week she finds the club's president dead and runs into a ghost from the past in the big mansion. Now it's up to her to find out who the killer was before she joins the ghost.

I am looking forward to finding out exactly what happened to Clemmie, the ghost, later in the series. I never did guess the culprit until she was revealed.

A fun beginning to a new series (I hope). I enjoyed the characters and setting. Looking forward to having more books. Fun take on seeing ghosts. Lots of build up for future books but wound up this story nicely.

This was a fun little cozy mystery that is the start to a new series. Avery has just taken on a new position at the Portage Path Women's Club, with the goal of bringing it back to life as a 21st century organization. Her idealism is quickly put the test when she is met by the club's President, Muriel, who wants Avery out and her granddaughter in. Plenty of action, a twist of paranormal that keeps things fun, and a group of quirky side characters make this book a roaring success. I look forward to reading the next installment.

Great start of a new paranormal series. Builds on characters we will grow to enjoy, not too much paranormal which is a nice change.

A very good cozy paranormal mystery. The characters were interesting and the author was very descriptive. Looking forward to reading the second one to see how the author grows. The only problem I had was that it seemed as if the mystery was solved very quickly without too much going on in between the murder and the reveal. Seemed a bit rushed.