Wow, I loved this.

The story evolves from the first book. Riley’s psychic powers increase as she gains control over her mind. She and Nick fall deeper in love and Riley provides assist to the police force after what happened in the first book

Definitely recommend

“Riley Thorn and the Corpse in the Closet," the second installment in the self-titled series by Lucy Score, is not a stand-alone piece and should be read after reading the first novel, “Riley Thorn and the Dead Guy Next Door.”

The novel takes place after the ending of the first book. Riley “middle name unknown” Thorn and Nick Santiago (a private investigator and ex-detective) are navigating life after an nearly fatal gunshot wound. Having never had a serious, long-term girlfriend, Nick moves with Riley into a mansion filled with several octogenarians and dog named Burt.

The novel begins on August 18th, during a hostage situation at the Channel 50 news station. The characters are arguing over whose life is more valuable. Then the novel flashes back to the past, to six days before the hostage situation.

Riley Thorn hails from a generation of psychic women. Her grandmother Elanora Basil is one of the leading women of The Guild. Her mother, Blossom, and sister, Wander, each have separate psychic abilities. Elanora, eager to stop her granddaughters from withdrawing from their calling, visits Harrisburg (along with fellow Guild companion Gabe) to set her family on the right path.

When a woman is found dead in her closet with no leads, Detective Weber seeks out Riley for her clairvoyance skills.

Riley wants nothing more than to put her use of psychic abilities behind her, yet in order for her to help her boyfriend Nick and Detective Weber with their caseloads, she must call upon spiritual guides--the pink and blue cotton candy clouds--to help her to solve the case.

The entire novel is filled with farcical caricatures. Gabe visits the town of Harrisburg and becomes obsessed with ice cream, and is barely able to formulate articulate sentences. His mannerisms are written as robotic and there is even a scene in which his lifeform is questioned. Burt, the dog adopted from the first book, has a penchant for human food and is frequently depicted as flatulent. Surprisingly, more emphasis is placed on the dog's digestive issues than on the details of the crime scenes or the investigative work of Riley, Weber, and Nick. Riley’s ex-husband, Griffin Gentry, is portrayed as a tan, Ken doll wannabe. His current fiancée, Bella, is depicted as a dim-witted character with little intelligence, who is particularly notable for her inability to recognize women's faces. Nick’s sexual prowess is mentioned in every interaction he has with women. The reader is constantly reminded of a woman who he has been intimate with, despite the irrelevance to the plot.

This novel felt disorganized and scattered. It lacked the promised suspense, and the romantic comedy elements advertised on the cover are misleading. While the novel includes moments of angst and one or two intimate scenes, most of the novel contains over-the-top mannerisms and comments from the characters, which gives the impression of reading about a circus funhouse and its eccentric inhabitants.
Rating 2.5/5


Thank you to Lucy Score, NetGalley and Sourcebooks bloom books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so very much @NetGalley, @scorelucy and @read_bloom for my gifted copies!

Wow! Seriously, I DEVOURED and am in love with this series! Riley Thorn, sexy Nick Santiago, their kooky family and neighbors…...just can not get enough! LOVED, LOVED, LOVED!! I didn’t think this could be better than the first book, but, YES it was!

At first, I wasn’t sure there would be any action like the last book and kept waiting for it, FINALLY, the action came and boy, oh boy, was there action! I love the banter between Riley and Nick, their love story, its just so damn sweet…. and sexy! I also love how you can NEVER guess who the killer is, always a really SHOCKING surprise!

I can not say enough great things about this FANTASTIC romantic thriller! I am so excited to start the 3rd in the series and eagerly await my arc in the mail!

Fans of the Mia Sheridan, Elle Kennedy and MaryJanice Davidson will absolutely fall in love with Riley and Nick, so go ahead and read it! It’s also available on KU!

Are you looking fun a fun, mystery romance with witty banter between a private investigator and a physic? Then The Corpse in the Closet by @scorelucy is a must-read! The book is the second journey in the Riley Thorn series and along the way you will meet, a promising psychic and PI, as she works alongside her handsome boyfriend and PI partner, Nick, to solve cases involving missing persons and murder suspects. Nick is very protective of Riley, after she was shot and almost killed solving their first murder together, but Detective Weber needs her help now to solve the murder of the corpse in the closest before the murderer kills again. Throughout their adventures, you will witness Riley's psychic abilities being put to the test during psychic bootcamp, as well as encounters with ex-lovers, crazy families, hilariously nosy neighbors, Daisy, the adorable cow, and Burt, the farting dog. I am one of the biggest Lucy Score fans out there and I was so excited to receive the ebook-ARC for this book. I loved her first book in the series, The Dead Guy Next Door and am highly anticipating the next book, The Blast From the Past!!
I highly recommend this unforgettable and entertaining read!

Thank you @scorelucy, @netgalley, and @read_bloom for the ebookARC! All opinions expressed are my own.

Fair warning, this is book #2 of the series. Did I know that going in? Nope. Did it stop me? Also nope.

Lucy Score does an amazing job of recapping that this book can truly stand alone...which is quite the accomplishment. The group of characters is perfectly quirky. The humor balances out the seriousness of the whodunit. Witty banter galore!

Definitely worth checking out. I will most likely go back and read the first book too.

Honestly, these books are so silly but light and fun and I just can't quit reading them! I love the banter between Riley and Nick, and love all the cast of kooky side characters who are just so well developed. I loved the mystery that was sprinkled in, and appreciate how all the stories come together perfectly. Riley has been hired as a civilian correspondent for Detective Weber after proving that she and her psychic powers can be useful during the last book. Meanwhile, Nick is busy trying to find out where a missing divorcee is before his ex-wife's much needed vacation. The twists and turns that they are taken on in this story involves solving these mysteries as well as dealing with Riley's scary grandmother who is a world renowned psychic, self defense classes with her elderly roommates and holding a séance for show. Like all Lucy Score books, they're just a bit too long, but I can still appreciate what she is doing. I loved the second book in the series and look forward to continuing on with Riley Thorn and seeing what sort of predicament that she gets herself into next.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy of this book. All opinions within this review are my own.

Riley narrowly escaped being murdered, but now her terrifying grandmother is in town and the police need her help solving a murder.

First things first, Lucy Score is a diabolical genius. There same characters are back from the first installment and continue to make you laugh out loud. Who doesn’t love the continued romance of Riley and Nick?

Thank you to Lucy Score, SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love Riley and her tribes of oddballs so much. Mystery mixed with humor is difficult but Lucy pulls it off every time.

I was so excited that there was going to be another story for Riley and Nick. I love the combo of this private investigator and psychic who are now pursuing their happily ever after dealing with more dead bodies and their family and friends. There is banter and quirky characters and a plot that keeps you invested from start to finish. This is an entertaining and fun.

Psychic Riley Thorn and her handsome private investigator boyfriend Nick are back at it in book two of the Riley Thorn Series. Detective Weber shows up, asking for Riley’s help figuring out who is responsible for the corpse in the closet. At the same time, Nick needs Riley’s help finding a missing person. Things get extra messy as Riley and Nick meet each other’s families. This book was funny and witty with mystery and action. I enjoyed every minute and can’t wait to see what happens next in this series!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloom Books for the ARC.

3.5 ⭐️

I went into this without reading the other two books first. I think I would’ve loved it if I had read the others. There were just so many characters that I couldn’t keep track of or understand that background of everyone and how they were all connected. I also wish it would have focused on one investigation versus two because I kept mixing them up. That being said, I loved the relationship between Nick and Riley. I wish it would’ve been dual first person POV to hear more of their inner thoughts.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 🌶️🌶️
Romance: 💕💕💕.5

The second book in the fun, mystery solving Riley Thorn series!

Riley, being born into a family of psychics, has finally acknowledged that her gifts may be telling her real and important things, and she has now tangled herself up in solving more crimes with her Private Investigator boyfriend, Nick and his friend, Detective Weber with the help of her spirit guides!
Will Riley’s gifts be strong enough to string the pieces together and solve the case or will her grandmother get in the way with the ways of ‘the Guild’?

Her last case almost ended with her getting murdered. Where will her gifts land her this time?!

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

If you need an absolutely hilarious, fun loving, well written, exciting book, you need to read this book. Lucy Score flexes her literary creative finger in this second book of the budding psychic Riley Thorn series featuring a delectably handsome Nick, a room clearing farting dog, a cow, a scary granny, and maybe an extraterrestrial.

Riley is a budding psychic and PI under the tutelage of her sexy boyfriend and fellow PI, Nick. Join them on the hunt for missing people and murder suspects, psychic bootcamp, sparkles, short ex's and nosy neighbors.

Although it's a romance, sex isn't the main focus, even when sometimes it is, and I didn't miss it at all.

I can't wait for the third book and hopefully more!

Super cute!!!! I always have a fun time with Riley and Nick. These books are perfect for cozy fluff vibes.

I loved the first book in this series, and Lucy Score strikes comedic gold once again with her latest installment featuring the reluctant psychic Riley Thorn and her detective beau Nick Santiago.

Riley is summoned back to Channel 50, where her ex-husband and his weather girl fiancée await, ready to stir up more drama than a soap opera on fast-forward. Adding to Riley's stress is the appearance of not only her grandmother but also Nick's family. Adding to our enjoyment are the antics of Riley's elderly housemates. The body count rises faster than a soufflé in a microwave, and the meet-the-parents dinner goes about as smoothly as a porcupine in a balloon factory.

With its blend of mystery, humor, and heart, Corpse in the Closet is a must-read for anyone craving a hilarious whodunit with a side of psychic shenanigans. Prepare to laugh your way through this five-star gem!

I enjoyed reading The Corpse in the Closet, but I felt like it dragged a bit. Full disclosure: I haven’t read the first book in the Riley Thorn series, though I have read many other Lucy Score books. I didn’t feel like I needed to have read the first book to understand what was going on here, though there were references to events from the first book. I think billing this as romance is a misnomer, even with the genre also listed as mystery. This book was romance adjacent at most and in my opinion would be better classified solely as a paranormal mystery (albeit a lighthearted one).

The Corpse in the Closet is about Riley Thorn, a psychic who is still learning to use her skills, and her live-in boyfriend Nick Santiago, a private investigator. Riley is called in to help the police investigating a homicide while Nick is looking into a missing person. There’s also a bit of the story dedicated to Riley’s grandmother putting her family through a “psychic boot camp” to hone their skills.

For a mystery, this book doesn’t take itself too seriously, which I actually liked and appreciated, but that did make for some tonal incongruence given this book is about solving a string of murders. Given the genre is listed as romance first on Goodreads, I wish there had been a bit more about the couple and them developing their relationship. I also found it a bit bizarre that they lived together, but had never said “I love you” before, but perhaps I was missing some context from the first book there. I found the parts with the grandmother to be what really dragged for me - I just didn’t think there was enough growth in the area of Riley’s psychic powers to warrant the amount of time that was spent getting there with her grandmother.

Overall I recommend this book for romance readers trying to get into mystery or for anyone who wants a mystery/comedy that is a bit lighter than other mysteries.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloom Books for the ARC of this rerelease!

I absolutely adored this book. It was full of humor and an uncanny way of presenting it. I love they the FMC and MMC seem like completely opposites and yet it still works. It has little bit of something for everyone and it’s such an enjoyable read

Another great Lucy Score read! I loved the characters, and it was a good mystery and fun to read overall! I'm looking forward to reading book 3! Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley!

This was another great story by Lucy Score. These characters are so fun to read and I actually liked the mystery in this one a bit more than the first book in the series! Can't wait to read more! Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

I love the way Lucy Score tells a story and I really enjoyed this one!

This book is the second in the series following Riley Thorn, a psychic who is helping the police solve a homicide. Her detective boyfriend is the one feeding her cases so they’re working together to solve the crime.

Between the family dramatics, hot and heavy relationship, and murderers on the loose, there is a LOT going on in this book.

A fun read if you’re looking for a little mystery without it being too dark and deep!