This book is so funny. Cordelia is dead. Her new roommate is a chatterbox who can't even hear her. The neighbour across the hall winds up dead and the fact he was shot in the head indicates it was murder. But how does a dead person get the answers she needs to solve the crime? The results are hilarious and very unexpected in places. The dual view points add to the unexpected twists and Cordelia and Ruby have very different ideas of who might have commited the crime and why. And the fact that Cordelia's attempts to discuss her ideas never work out as planned just add to the fun.

I'm very happy to see that this will be a series. Can hardly wait to read the next one!

👻 A New Lease on Death - Olivia Blacke

3 ⭐️ - This book reminds me of the shows, The Good Place and Not Dead Yet or the movie, Over Her Dead Body! I like the idea of funny, “not gone yet” spirits being friendly. Think Casper if you will.

I wanted to like this one more. I was really intrigued by the concept of a friendly ghost roommate trying to help a “breather” solve a murder mystery. But as the book went on, it got slow. I felt like I kept reading and not a whole lot was happening. I kept waiting for something exciting to strike or a crazy clue to appear, but it just felt flat. MEH, I’m sad because I was into it and enjoying it when I started. This is a series and if I continue, I might be choosing the audios and zip through and keep up with it.

Thanks Netgalley and Minatour Books for the early ARC copy.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin press and Olivia Blacke for the ARC of A New Lease on Death.

This was a cozy mystery that is enjoyable for the easy read. I really did not connect to the characters in this book but still enjoyed reading the crazy adventures of them trying to figure out the who done it. I would read other books by this author in the future.

*Premature review* as I haven’t finished yet however I ABSOLUTELY adore what I’ve read so far and can tell it’s going to be a high rated read for me. I really appreciate the multiple POV between the living current resident Ruby and not so living past…current? resident Cordelia (love this name btw!!!!). They work together to figure out what in the heck is going on at the apartment building they live(d) at after their across the hall neighbor Jake is discovered with a bullet hole in his head outside the apartment in the snow…with all his belongings still, tho it’s been ruled as a mugging, Ruby and Cordelia are feeling otherwise. Especially after a journalist brings up a suspicious figure leaving after Cordelia’s ruled suicide. Very much looking forward to seeing how it plays out but needed to right this all out now!!! Thank you thank you for the opportunity!!!! (Will post full review with links upon finishing)

A cozy mystery to get you in the mood for October. I felt it was a little slow paced at times. I wish I could rate it higher because it was an interesting premise, but the execution of the book left it in the middle ground for me.

Thanks to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for this advanced copy of this book. A New Lease on Death is available on October 29, 2024.

Thanks to Minotaur Books for gifted access via Netgalley. All opinions below are my own.

Cordelia is a ghost who cohabitates with the girl who rented her apartment after her death. Ruby is a bit of a mess but seems to acknowledge her as a bit of an invisible roommate. That balance is disrupted as one of their neighbors dies under mysterious circumstances. Cordelia finds ways to communicate with Ruby and convinces her to investigate. 

I like a human / ghost sleuth story. The times where Cordelia and Ruby were figuring out communication and looking for clues were great. Jake's murder is solved but not in a way that made sense to me given the clues we were, it felt more of a stretch than I would like. But what annoyed me more was the unnecessary cliffhanger for a mystery that seemed easily solved in a parallel way to Jake's. I think if it had wrapped up cleanly, I would have rated it much higher and been more likely to read a sequel with these two. Now, not a chance.

My thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books/St. Martins Publishing for the ARC of "A New Lease on Death" in exchange for an honest review.
I can't say I fully embraced this whole heartedly, since it fell a little short in a few key areas. But mostly, I found it an entertaining read that kept me staying with it all the way through.
I guess you'd call it a Big City Cozy......unfolding not in a quaint little town but on the cold, snowy, sometimes violent streets of Boston. New 20 year old apartment dweller Ruby moved in to wipe out the memories of her 'jerkface' cheating ex. Quirky, cute and the world's worst job interviewee, she's got another problem - Cordelia, the 40-something previous tenant, hasn't vacated, unless you count committing suicide in the bathtub as vacating. Cordy's still inhabiting the apartment as a ghost.......and initially not thrilled with her new roommate.
And now the fun begins. Ruby and Cordelia, not only slowly establish a workable living (and dead) apartment sharing arrangement, but team up as oddball amateur detectives. Yet another neighbor of theirs, Jake, was shot dead on the street (and for some strange reason,, barely dressed), right in front of the apartment building. Ruby then has her hands full questioning potential suspects who can't quite figure out the paranormal oddities that occur all around her.
I was expecting a more generous helping of humor in a setup like this, but the author Olivia Blacke seems to ration it out in careful spoonfuls. The book devotes a huge amount of time to its own ghostly mythology that dictates the extent of Cordelia's abilities and powers.....a little too much of it and it slows down the pace. What I did enjoy, was the step-by-step building of friendship and the beginnings of affection between the two sleuths stuck in separate modes of existence. And their exasperating attempts to communicate with each other keeps a reader smiling - especially when they stumble upon the one way that actually works for both of them.
The expected showdown-finale with the killer comes in kind of a rush but still makes for an exciting, witty, and satisfying way for these unlikely detectives to close their first case.....and move on to the next.. I'll be there with them for sure, but hoping the next one streamlines the paranormal exposition and amps up the amusing byplay.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Olivia Blacke for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for A New Lease on Death coming out October 29, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author. I really love mysteries! I was excited to check this out. I’m not opposed to dark comedy. Normally, I would be obsessed with a book like this. But I think there was something missing for me. I didn’t connect with the characters as much as I wanted. I liked parts of the book. I would check out other books by this author.

After discovering her longtime boyfriend was cheating on her, Ruby decided she needed a fresh start and moved to Boston where she found a tiny, fully furnished apartment in a marginal neighborhood. She soon learns the reason why the apartment is fully furnished is because the previous tenant, Cordelia Graves, died in it. And Ruby is not sure Cordelia has left yet.

Cordelia is new at being a ghost, so she's excited when her former neighbor, Jake, joins her in the spirit world. But she is also concerned about what happened to him. And whether her new roommate, Ruby, is going to kill ALL her plants. She finally learns to communicate with Ruby and two become an unlikely detecting duo, trying to discover who killed Jake. Although his murder appears to be a robbery, the fact that he was outside in pajama bottoms and fuzzy socks during a snowstorm suggests he only stepped out for a moment. But Jake's tendencies toward womanizing and gambling provide too many suspects.

I can't convey how much I loved this book. The setting is perfect; Ruby and Cordelia are both relatable; and the premise is unique. I've read and enjoyed one of Olivia Blacke's other series, but this debut of a new series is utter perfection. I can't wait to see which direction she goes next, as there are numerous hints to other stories. How did Cordelia really die? What's the backstory with her brother? #ANewLeaseonDeath #NetGalley

In A New Lease on Death, Olivia Blacke introduces a quirky, genre-blending mystery led by an unlikely duo: Ruby, the living, apartment-killing tenant, and Cordelia, her ghostly roommate with a penchant for solving crimes. Blacke's story kicks off with dark humor, as Ruby moves into her Boston apartment only to discover Cordelia's spirit still “living” there. When their neighbor, Jake, is shot, Cordelia enlists Ruby to help solve his murder, leading to a reluctant partnership between the two.

The duo’s antics, Ruby's upbeat persistence versus Cordelia's sarcastic deadpan, provide some entertaining moments. However, the story's pacing and balance of humor with suspense sometimes fall flat, leaving the plot feeling uneven. The ghost-human partnership is a fresh take on the cozy mystery, but the novel could benefit from deeper character development to fully invest readers in their sleuthing adventures.

Overall, A New Lease on Death is an amusing, if occasionally inconsistent, read for fans of supernatural mysteries with a twist of dark comedy.

“A New Lease on Death” is the first in Olivia Blacke’s Supernatural Mystery series. A paranormal cozy, the book features two characters: Ruby Young, a young woman who moves to Boston from Baltimore and rents an inexpensive fully-furnished apartment, and Cordelia Graves, the former tenant of that apartment who is now a ghost, having died of a drug and alcohol overdose in her bathtub. Cordelia strongly believes that her neighbor across the hall was murdered, and the book is focused on her and Ruby’s efforts to investigate the neighbor’s death.

The book has an interesting premise, and the main characters are well-developed. The plot, however, moves very slowly as the author spends a lot of time explaining how Cordelia and Ruby are able to communicate with each other, and what ghosts can and cannot do. As a result, the mystery wraps up very quickly, and it is unlikely that readers will be able to solve it with the limited clues provided. I am interested in seeing how the series develops in the future, now that the groundwork has been laid.
3.5 out of 5.0 stars.

Thanks to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary advanced copy of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for the ARC of A New Lease on Death by Olivia Blacke.

Unfortunately, I’ve moved this one to DNF. After 2/5 into the book, I was struggling for it to hold my interest. The description sounded like a book I’d be interested in, but the plot just didn’t pull me in. I think it was too slow moving getting to the point of solving the mystery versus building up the dynamic between Cordelia and Ruby. For me, there is only so many times I want to hear about the struggles they are having communicating with one another. I also found myself confused on whose POV the chapters were from at times as they kept going back and forth, but it was not an every other one. Given I did not finish this, I did not rate this on Goodreads. However, one NetGalley I have to leave a rating in order to leave a review, so note this is not an accurate star rating as I did not complete the book, but only in what I finished to the point where I stopped reading.

A New Lease on Death is the first book of a new series by Olivia Blacke. I’ve read and enjoyed all three of the books in The Record Shop mystery series, so I was eager to try out this new book. I was not disappointed!

One similarity between the two series, besides the murder-solving aspect, is the depiction of friendships (or sister-ships) between the female main characters. One huge difference in the two series is that in A New Lease on Death, one of the characters is a ghost.

When Cordelia Graves died, her ghost lingered. She’s stayed in her old apartment because she really doesn’t have anywhere else to go. It’s a lonely, somewhat frustrating life (technology and anything with electricity tends to blow up when she’s around), and she’s really not happy when young bubbly Ruby Young moves into the apartment, especially when Ruby manages to kill all of Cordelia’s houseplants.

Ruby desperately needs a place she can afford to rent, so she takes the apartment as is—complete with all of Cordelia’s belongings. She is thrilled when she realizes Cordelia’s ghost still lives there.

At first the two women seem incompatible, both as personalities and as corporeal vs. incorporeal bodies. When their neighbor across the hall is murdered, however, they eventually find a way to communicate and cooperate as they work together to solve what the police quickly label a mugging. And along the way, they begin to uncover some of the missing pieces to Cordelia’s own death.

Blacke does a great job of blending character development, details about ghostly existence, humor, and a mystery to solve. I hope there are more books to come in the Supernatural Series!

This book was so unique!

It has a lot of potential, but the pacing was a bit off in my opinion! It was still really cute and fun, it had real life struggles and moments! I would pick up the next in the series to see how it is going! Comedy + murder pairs well together in this book!

3.5 rounded up to a 4

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book.

Cordelia Graves wakes up (or comes to) to the ringing of her doorbell, but when she reaches to open the door, her hand goes right through the handle. That seems to have been happening a LOT lately. What is going on? When her visitor opens the door and comes in, they both realize what is happening - Cordelia's decomposing body is in the bathtub!! But that's only the beginning.

After Cordelia's death is ruled a suicide, the landlord rents out her apartment as furnished, after stealing anything that seems valuable, and the new tenant, Ruby Young, can't believe her luck at getting a fully furnished apartment at such a good price. A few weeks later, Jake, the tenant from across the hall, is found shot dead on the sidewalk in front of the building. Two deaths from the same floor of the same apartment building just a few weeks apart?

Ruby always feels like she is being watched and starts talking to Cordelia as though she is still there. Which she is. When Cordelia finds a way to respond, they work together to unravel the mystery of Jake's murder.

This was easy to read and I wanted to find out what was happening next. The ending makes me hope there will be a sequel.

This was a fun read and a great hook for a series! At the end I wanted to immediately be able to jump into the next book. I like that the rules of the ghost world are a little different and that we are unraveling that at the same time the characters are unraveling the larger mystery. I'm excited to see where this series goes.

In this darkly funny supernatural mystery about an unlikely crime-solving duo that launches a commercial, unique, and genre-blending series, death is only the beginning.

Thank you Minotaur Books & Netgalley for my digital ARC of this book! I decided to DNF this book after reading 194 pages. I liked the idea of a ghost and a human solving a murder mystery together and what I read of the book was fun but I can’t get into this book. It’s too slow for me.

3.5 stars

I love the premise of this mystery - the ghost of the previous tenant and the current tenant of the same apartment team up to solve the murder of their neighbor - and possibly the ghost’s, too? There were parts I really enjoyed, like Cordelia and Ruby getting to know one another and figuring out how to communicate with one another. Their interactions were at times hilarious, at times happy, and at times really sad. It was also fun seeing Cordelia learn how her ghost powers work, and maybe branch out of the comfort of her routine to meet others, even if those others are just Ruby and maybe another ghost or two. The mystery of Jake’s murder definitely had me guessing, and I was not on the right track.

For some reason, I thought Cordelia’s death was going to be related to Jake’s, maybe because Jake saw someone coming out of Cordelia’s apartment on the day she died. So not only was I surprised when they weren’t connected, but I was also surprised we didn’t learn the truth of Cordelia’s death in this book, but we were just left with the cliffhanger of Ruby figuring out it wasn’t a suicide (which, duh). As much time as they spend “together,” there’s a lot Ruby and Cordelia don’t know about one another, and that can be frustrating at times.

Both their lives also seem incredibly sad. Ruby was so broken over her boyfriend cheating on her that she left what seemed like a loving family and everything she knew to try to make it alone, and was barely surviving before Cordelia started helping her along. Meanwhile, Cordelia doesn’t seem to have anyone who truly mourned her loss. I’m not sure you can count Adam, no matter how “sad” he sounds when he finally says her name - he was basically using her for sex and his own ego, and even if he did care for her in some way, it wasn’t enough to actually give up his cushy life to try and make it work. Cordelia was messed up emotionally by her parents’ deaths and trying to raise and help her brother all these years - it seems like she had a hard time opening up to people, but you could tell she cared about people and maybe just didn’t know how to connect to them.

Overall, I found this book generally engaging, if a bit sad. The writing is a bit awkward at times, and the pacing felt off, but I wanted to get to know the main characters more. I love reading ghost stories, especially less spooky ones like this, and the idea that as a ghost, Cordelia believing in something makes it true is so original. When Jake disappeared the second he said, “I don’t believe in ghosts,” I laughed so hard. I’ll be recommending this one (with the caveats mentioned) and looking forward to book 2, where we will hopefully learn more about Cordelia’s murder, and look into the background of Penny the suspicious reporter more. Where are Cordelia’s laptop and phone? Where did the pills in her system come from? Why didn’t Adam come visit her the day before her murder? Who was the man Jake saw leaving her apartment?Was anyone notified of her death? How is it legal that the building super was just able to give all her stuff away to a random? I have so many questions I need answered!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advance copy of this book.

“No one seemed to know her well, but judging from the contents of her apartment, all she ever did was read books and drink booze.”

👻 Genre: Magical realism/murder mystery
👻 Profanity: Moderate
👻 Steamy rating: Mild

“A New Lease on Death” is a charming and quirky tale that follows Ruby, a young woman who relocated to Boston after a devastating breakup. With her finances tight, Ruby finds an affordable apartment in a questionable neighborhood, only to discover the previous tenant, Cordelia, has yet to vacate. She’s now a ghost.

Ruby and Cordelia’s friendship is a highlight of the book. It is unexpected and heartwarming. Cordelia is 20 years Ruby’s senior and a bit of an introvert. Ruby is quirky and eccentric. The unlikely pair team up to solve the recent murder of Ruby’s across the hall neighbor, Jake.

The plot was quirky and silly. It kept me engaged the entire time. I do hope the sequel sheds light on why Cordelia took her own life- if that’s truly what happened. Throughout the book, Ruby has her doubts. As do I. I can’t wait for the sequel.

Thank you Netgalley and Minotaur Books for the chance to read an ARC of A new lease on death by Olivia Blacke and is the 1st book in the Supernatural mysteries. This is a quirky cozy mystery and is narrated by a ghost, Cordelia and Ruby who moved in to Cordelia's apartment after she died. It was a nice read especially around the Halloween season, but I was a bit disappointed because as with some other series, it has a cliffhanger ending, setting up the next book.