Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Minotaur Books for this advanced copy. You can pick up /a New Lease on Death on October 29, 2024.

If you're a fan of Only Murders in the Building but want a paranormal twist, this is likely the book for you! I unfortunately wasn't much in the mood for a murder mystery, so I put this one down, but I might pick it up again when the mood strikes. Interesting characters and fun shenanigans though!

I thought this was so cute! The premise was not like anything I've read in the cozy mystery genre and I was intrigued. I found Ruby to be a little grating, but would definitely read the second book to give the overarching storylines a little more time to develop. Overall a fun, seasonal mystery that I would recommend to fans of this genre!

Cute, cozy ghost story mystery! This was just the type of read I needed in my life.

This book is told through 2 POV:
*Cordelia’s POV: a ghost still hanging around her apartment she died in. While alive, Cordelia was a 40-something single woman who kept to herself (usually with a bottle or two to keep her company). She’s still fairly new to being by a ghost and is getting used to having a roommate for the first time after Ruby becomes the new tenant in her apartment.

*Ruby POV: moved into Cordelia’s apt after she died. She’s 20 years old and looking for a new start in a new city. After a while she realizes she’s living with a real ghost, which doesn’t scare her.

Together, the unlikely duo attempt to solve the mystery of their neighbor’s murder.

This is narration heavy since Cordelia was a ghost and couldn’t talk to anyone directly. Ruby lives alone with no interaction with friends or family. Usually that bores me, but their inner thoughts were entertaining and humorous. The only thing I didn’t really like was how repetitive things got at times. It probably could have been a bit shorter.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. This review will be shared on NetGalley, Goodreads, and Amazon.

Pub Date Oct 29 2024

A surprisingly entertaining mystery. When Cordelia, herself a ghost, starts to talk to and work with her "roommate" in order to solve another murder there are many twists and turns. You'll find yourself enchanted by both characters and want to read through to figure out what happens in the end!

w Reader,

Hey look!  It isn’t a Christmas book. Yea! 

But this book is a different genre than my usual. It is not historical fiction, or cozy mystery, or fiction or even biography. This is in the supernatural mystery category. Now, I know that some of you might be turned off by that label, but I ask you to have an open mind.

The book opens with the death of Jake Macintyre. Jake lived in Apartment 4H. Jake is lying dead in front of the apartment building with a bullet hole in his head. Cordelia Graves is standing over the body. She notices that Jake is holding an expensive cell phone in his hand and comes to the conclusion that Jake did not die from a robbery attempt. Jake suddenly sits up. He recognizes Cordelia as the dead girl from across the hall from him. She assures him that she is the dead girl from across the hall. It takes Jake a few minutes to realize that he can see her because he is also dead. He is very confused. Cordelia urges him to come inside the building and after convincing him that he can walk through the front door, he realizes that he is a ghost but he doesn’t believe in ghosts, so he vaporizes. Cordelia is alone again.

Cordelia Graves is dead. She knows this but she also knows that she is still living in her apartment in Boston. Unfortunately, she is living there with a roommate. The first issue is that the roommate is alive and doesn’t really know that Cordelia is there. Ruby Young has moved to the city to escape a love story gone wrong. Her boyfriend was cheating and she decided that she had to leave town and move to Boston. She found an apartment that seemed to have someone’s things still there, but she could afford it and moved in. She is steadily killing off the house plants that were in the apartment.

The killing of the houseplants is driving Cordelia crazy. She doesn’t get what the problem is with this girl. Ruby figures out that Cordelia is living in the apartment with her and the two of them join forces to find out what happened to Jake. And maybe they will find out what happened to Cordelia. Cordelia doesn’t know and doesn’t think that her death makes sense. Through many rough starts, the two find they can communicate – not perfectly but they can exchange information.

Cordelia can find out things (by walking through walls) that Ruby can’t, but Cordelia cannot touch electronics because they blow up when she touches them. (They both learned this from experience.) So, they imperfectly work together to solve the mystery.

I liked this book. I enjoyed the interplay of the characters. It is a mystery written differently (at least for me) I recommend that you read this. I  think it is the first book of a new series.

Thanks for reading!

I was given an advance copy of this book in return for my unbiased review. The book will be published on October 29, 2024.

It was a cute mystery story. I really enjoyed the dual POV and the ghost was my favorite character.

It was a very repetitive story and that got old VERY quickly. We understand that Boston is cold and that the ghost was upset with the clothes she died in. It's okay to mention it a couple times but this was obsessively commented on.

It ended on a cliff-hanger, I'm not sure if I liked the story enough to read part 2.

But thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book!

This is a new series by Olivia Blacke .I highly recommend it. I hope there are more books. Cordelia neighbor was found shot dead in the front of their apartment building. She is a ghost so with the help of Ruby the new tenant in her apartment they will figure who did it.

I had so much fun with this book. I wish the plots had been a little more wrapped up by the end of the book, but that just means I’ll look forward to the rest of the series even more!

Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC!

This was a new take on the murder mystery novel. I am not one for m*rd*r books, but this was a cozy mystery that I was able to get invested in quickly. I was very intrigued, but disappointed by the ending. I guess I'll just have to read part 2!

Thanks again for the ARC!

"A New Lease on Death" was good enough, but definitely not great. Although there were a lot of annoying bits about this book, I still liked it enough that I'll seek out the next in the series.

A short list of some of the non-spoiler annoying bits:
-repetition. I don't think it was necessary to keep pointing out how cold Boston winters can get, or that Cordelia was stuck in the clothes she died in, or that Ruby missed her sisters, or that ghosts and electronics don't mix, or that the apartment is on the fourth floor and the elevator doesn't work (just to name a few).
-real-world stuff was more far-fetched than the magical/ghosty-y stuff; Ruby seems to have virtually zero self-preservation instincts; even for a 20-year-old, she is far too naive and trusting.
-quite a few plot-holes and inconsistencies:
--given the abilities she does have, why can't Cordelia just swipe a pen from somewhere? Or get an etch-a-sketch for the apartment?
--there are many mentions of tenants having to go downstairs to get deliveries, packages, etc from the lobby, because delivery people refuse to hike up to the fourth floor. But somehow those delivery people that refuse to trek upstairs are sliding carryout menus/flyers under the fourth-floor apartment doors?

A cozy mystery! A ghost who does not remember her death and the girl who moved into her apartment are on the hunt to solve a case of murders in “their” apartment! A Halloween mystery!

I unfortunately had to DNF as I did not relate or enjoy the story enough to continue. The premise captivated me, however the characters were lackluster and slow-moving.

This is such a fun book to read for Halloween season for those who aren’t looking for something super scary. I really enjoyed the paranormal aspect to the mystery and thought it added a fun element to the traditional partners solving a mystery trope.

I did not enjoy this book. It was so slow and while the premise was interesting, there wasn’t enough to keep me wanting to read.

A New Lease on Death is a cozy, low-stakes mystery—think Casper the Friendly Ghost meets Nancy Drew. Cordelia is dead and spends her days haunting her old apartment. Ruby takes over Cordelia's lease, and the two build a heartwarming friendship as they work together to solve a murder.

This book was cute, definitely not scary or spooky. There were a few lines of cheeky commentary that gave me a chuckle, but it definitely wasn't laugh-out-loud hilarious. It got pretty repetitive in the middle, and a lot of fluff could have been edited out. Overall, I enjoyed the read and recommend it to readers looking for a light-hearted mystery. If you want a book with ghosts for Fall but don't like horror or hauntings, I would definitely give this a try.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher, for the ARC!

A New Lease on Death is the story of unlikely roommates, Cordelia the ghost and Ruby the current living resident of Cordelia’s old apartment. Together they work to solve the murder of their neighbor across the hall, Jake. Along the way they learn how to communicate and help each other.

This has all the elements of the amateur detective mystery, but is layered with the characters coming to know each other. I loved this unique take on a murder mystery where they work together as best they are able, even though communication is tricky. There were some fun ghostly antics but also some commentary on more serious issues. All in all, a great murder mystery with some spooky fun. The mystery was wrapped up well, but there is a door open to a second book and I will definitely read that when it comes out.

Thank you to the publisher St. Martin’s Press / Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the gifted digital ARC to review in exchange for my honest review. This book publishes on October 29th, check it out!

THIS WAS FUN SPOOKY MYSTERY READ THAT HAD EVERYTHING LOOK
FOR IN A LIGHTHEARTED COZY MYSTERY. I LOVED THIS TAKE ON THE
UNEXPECTED ROOMMATE IDEA AND WATCHING AS THEY BECAME
A MYSTERY WAS SO MUCH FUN. I HOPE THAT THIS IS THE FIRST IN A
SERIES BECAUSE I COULD READ MORE ABOUT THEM AND LOVE TO
DISCOVER HOW THEY WOULD FIND NEW CASES! HOW CORDELIA
AND RUBY COMMUNICATED WAS PART OF THE FUN BECAUSE NO
MATTER IF IT WAS VIA AN ETCHASKETCH OR FRIDGE MAGNETS THE
CREATIVITY HERE WAS DELIGHTFUL, NOT TO MENTION THE CONNECTION
BETWEEN THEM ALWAYS LEFT ME WITH A SMILE. THE ALTERNATING
CHAPTER TOLD IN EACH CHARACTERS VOICE I ADDED SO MUCH TO THE
THAT EVEN THE GHOST HAD A TRUE PRESENCE, BUT I DID FEEL LIKE
THERE WAS SOMETHING MISSING IN EACH ONES BACKSTORY,
BUT I AM HOPING THAT'S BECAUSE THERE IS MORE TO COME!

Instead of a book where people communicate via text messages, here’s a novel where the protagonists communicate via refrigerator magnets. Ruby and Cordelia are forced to live together as roommates in this spooky cozy mystery, except that Cordelia, the previous resident of the apartment, is unalive, and the landlord just couldn’t wait to re-rent to Ruby. This is a cute premise and the action takes place around the murder of another tenant. Cordelia is determined to have Ruby solve the crime and Cordelia, thank goodness, is also preventing Ruby from serial house plant murder.

This is a quick read that’s perfect for the Halloween season. The Cordelia/Ruby dynamic was fun and the way the book ended, I’m very much expecting that this will be a series. 3.5 stars.

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): YES Bobby has glassy green eyes.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO At least the ghost is a better plant parent than Ruby.

Thank you to Minotaur and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy!

Such a good read for October, a wonderful ghostly mystery. Cordelia is dead and Ruby moves in to her old apartment completely furnished with all of Cordelia's belongings. When across the hall neighbor Jake is found murdered on the sidewalk outside Ruby takes on the job of solving the murder. Can Cordelia help? They communicate using magnetic words on the fridge and together work to solve the mystery. A light and entertaining mystery with good plot and great characters, dead and alive. Released just in time for Halloween!
Thanks to #NetGalley#ANewLeaseOnDeath#StMartinsPress For the EARC and a great read.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: October 29, 2024
“A New Lease on Death” by Olivia Blacke is a sharp, quirky, supernatural mystery unlike any other!
Cordelia Graves is dead. There isn’t very much she can do about that. So, when she discovers her neighbour’s dead body in front of her old apartment building, she starts to wonder what really happened (what else does she have to do?). But again, Cordelia realizes that this is something she can’t investigate on her own- being dead and all. Luckily for Cordelia, Ruby Young moved into her previous apartment and, somehow, seems to be able to sense Cordelia’s presence. Ruby is young and perky, so initially it seems that Cordelia and Ruby don’t seem to have much in common- but Ruby has the only quality that Cordelia needs to help her uncover the truth- she is very much alive.
“Death” is the first novel in the “Supernatural mystery” series by Blacke, and it is very obvious by the end of the novel that a sequel is forthcoming. “Death” introduces Cordelia and Ruby to the world, two characters who are almost the antithesis of each other, coming together to try and solve a murder. The fact that Cordelia is dead adds a creative element to your typical murder mystery investigation, and it made the novel that much more enjoyable.
We don’t get a lot of information about Cordelia at first, besides the obvious, but she’s so likable, it’s almost easy to forget that she’s not in the land of the living. Ruby is twenty years old and unemployed, who moved to Boston on a whim to start over, after a devastating breakup. “Death” is told from the viewpoint of both characters, in alternating chapters, and, regardless of their differences, Ruby and Cordelia are a hilarious crime-fighting team.
There are enough twists and turns in this novel to make the ending unexpected, but it all plays out in such a way to be both believable and satisfying. Although no release date has been announced for the second novel, it will no doubt pick up where this novel left off- with Cordelia and Ruby’s next murder investigation. I can’t say if it will be necessary to read this novel in order to keep up with the second novel but I would definitely recommend this novel anyway!
“Death” is original, fun and the perfect read for the Spooky Season! I can’t wait for the second novel, so I can be reunited with Cordelia and Ruby once more!