Well if you ever find yourself dead and needing some entertainment, this is the book for you. Ruby Young moves into a fully furnished apartment only to find herself with a ghost for a roommate. Cordelia Graves died in the apartment and has been exploring the afterlife with little to no success. When the next-door neighbor Jake is killed, she teams up with Ruby to solve the murder of Jake. Thus, begins a funny oddball friendship between roommates alive and dead. This is a quirky, funny mystery. The difference between the two main characters is night and day and adds to the comical aspects of this book.

This is an easy read, very entertaining, the mystery had fun twists and turns with bonus Boston characters added in. You could almost smell the cheap beer, cheap perfume and hear the Boston accent coming through the book. Fun delightful read.

While I thought the premise would be a lot of fun as the spirit of Cordelia haunts her former apartment after new tenant Ruby moves in and gets mixed up in some detective work trying to find a murderer, the story left a lot to be desired. I just never got caught up in it at all.
On a cold wintery Boston day, Cordelia (who you assume is just out on a stroll) finds the dead body of her neighbor Jake on the sidewalk in front of their apartment building. Cordelia is in shock when suddenly, Jake "rises" into a sitting position but his dead body remains flat on the ground with a bullet hole in it. It is then that the reader realizes that Cordelia is a spirit and now, so is Jake. After they talk for a bit, Jake can't fathom this spirit world and disappears into the wind leaving Cordelia to wonder how Jake was killed. When she returns to her own apartment, her new "roomie" 20 year old Ruby is just starting her day and begins to sense that the spirit of the former occupant is there. When Ruby finds out that Jake has been murdered, the two of them will try to find out who did it.
There's a lot of red herrings, meeting obnoxious neighbors, friends of Jake's who come back and forth to his now empty apartment. Cordelia and Ruby communicate with letter magnets on Cordelia's fridge or she knocks things over or opens the curtains.
Often, the dialog is silly and in the case of Ruby's interaction with a man on a bus who clearly has some issues, it almost seemed like the dialog was how an 8 year old would voice puppets as they put on a show. The way that Cordelia stepped in to defend Ruby against this man's advances was equality over the top. The bus driver's reaction to Ruby afterwards was just ridiculous as if it were her fault. This action didn't stop there as Ruby is thrown out of a bar by the bartender whose interaction with her just didn't seem realistic. I'm not even going to mention the pawn shop! During Jake's wake, one of his best friends is uber drunk at the bar and in his drunken haze, he is able to hear Cordelia talking to him. Really???? So Cordelia steals a bottle of vodka and at home, pours drink after drink to underaged and teetotaler Ruby so they might "talk" to one another while Ruby is drunk! That is just plain wrong!!!
There are some heavy themes covered in this book like suicide, alcoholism, domestic abuse, murder, adultery. More time could have been spent going deeper with these topics to give the story more impact and relevance. The characters needed a lot more development to understand them as we really only know them superficially. Their backstories are never fleshed out totally for the reader to care about them.
I liked the cover art. Quite eye catching.

Very interesting book! This was my first book to read by this author and it was good. It wasn’t what I was expecting but in a good way. I couldn’t put it down!

When Ruby moves to Boston she finds a furnished apartment, with everything the previous tenant owned. The previous tenant died in the apartment and no one claimed anything, but it turns out the previous tenant hasn’t actually left the apartment, her ghost is still hanging around. Cordelia, the previous tenant, was a forty something office worker. Having perky 20-year-old Ruby in the apartment is about to drive Cordelia crazy, until she discovers a way to communicate with Ruby.

When a neighbor is killed in front of the apartment building, Cordelia and Ruby find a way to team up to discover who killed him. They are a strange duo, and the path to finding a way to communicate, to learning to like each other, and solving crimes is at times a bit slow. But it was a twisted path to solving the case, which made it more fun.

Thank you to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for providing an eARC toA Lease on Death; these are my honest opinions.

A really cute cozy mystery with a fun premise. A ghost only exists as long as they believe they are real? The rules around ghosts were a bit of a mind bender for me but I liked the characters and was excited to see them work together. There’s a nice setup for a sequel but I wanted to see the other murder solved in this book! I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

Courtney, 40ish and Ruby, 20ish are roommates.  They have differences. Courtney is quiet, private, loves plants, and had an alcohol problem. Ruby is free-spirited, outgoing, desperately in need of a job, and wants to make her way in the world away from her family. And oh, yeah, Courtney is dead and Ruby is alive. Which makes it hard to communicate with each other, to say the least.

The two of them team up to try to solve the murder of the guy who lived across the hall.

The book was quite clever and part of the fun of solving the mystery of who done it was the mechanics of how they learned to work together once Ruby learned she wasn’t living alone in their apartment.

Courtney helps Ruby with some much needed hidden money as well as assisting her to find employment.

I enjoyed the interactions between the two main characters as well as the mystery itself. And the fact that the author named the deceased Courtney Graves and the 20-year-old Ruby Young was not lost on me. J

There’s clearly another book planned as there’s one overarching plot point that I kept screaming about that will hopefully be resolved in the next book.  I’m not a fan of cliffhangers and I’m glad this book was not one. Yes, there is an overarching plot to tie book two to book one but we got resolution of the mystery of how the neighbor died and who was responsible and that satisfied me.

Can’t wait for the next book as these characters are delightful and fun to read. Dark, yet fun, this is a great read.

This one gets five stars from me.

Amazing storyline! I thought the ending had the potential to be so much more than it was however. The characters and their interesting dynamics truly made up for it though.

"A New Lease on Death" introduces Ruby Young, who recently moved into a Boston apartment that embodies all the quirks of an old building: a view of brick walls, malfunctioning heat, noisy partying neighbors, a faulty buzzer, and an unexpected resident—a ghost named Cordelia Graves.

Cordelia met her demise in the apartment's bathroom due to an apparent overdose of alcohol and drugs. Despite initial boredom and annoyance with her new roommate, Cordelia chose to embrace her ghostly existence and find enjoyment in her afterlife. However, when Jake Macintyre, a neighbor from across the hall, is fatally shot in what seems like a botched mugging outside their building, Cordelia becomes convinced that foul play was involved. Determined to uncover the truth, she enlists Ruby's help.

Together, Ruby and Cordelia form an unlikely partnership, diving deep into the mystery surrounding Jake's death and unraveling dangerous secrets hidden beneath the surface.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book; it was a quick, suspenseful read that never disappointed. Each chapter left me eagerly anticipating the next, particularly enjoying the alternating perspectives of Ruby and Cordelia. The cover art is striking, and Blacke's ability to blend wit with darkness made the novel thoroughly enjoyable.

Many thanks to Olivia Blacke, St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books, and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Make sure to grab a copy when it hits shelves on 10/29/2024!

Trigger warnings include: murder, domestic violence, shooting, and overdose.

I will be posting a review on Goodreads and Amazon in October 2024.

Thank you NetGally for the ARC. I enjoyed this book, it was a nice little cozy mystery book. I liked the dual POV’s and the vibes this novel gave.

I'd like to thank NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Olivia Blacke for allowing me access to this book. This was a good cozy murder-mystery. Ruby and Cordelia are both interesting characters and I liked their relationship with each other. I'm really excited for the sequel, especially with the cliffhanger ending.

Ruby, a twenty-year-old, new to the city, gets a great deal on an apartment, complete with the furniture, clothing, and food in the cupboards left behind when the last tenant committed suicide in the bathtub. After a neighbor is found dead on the doorstep to the building, Ruby is contacted via magnetic poetry on refrigerator by the ghost of Cordelia, the late tenant who has no idea of why she ended up dead and the two, so very different, work together to solve the doorstep murder. A delightfully entertaining traditional mystery with wry humor and clever twists, will keep me watching for the next in what is hopefully a series.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Cordelia needs help solving a murder. She asks Rudy who lives nearby for assistance. This book kept me guessing.

A new lease on death was a fun read. It was a bit slow for me but over all I enjoyed it. I like how the author switched POV between Cordelia and Ruby to give different perspectives to the story. If you're looking for a cozy mystery with some paranormal vibes, this is the book for you.

A NEW LEASE ON DEATH is the first book in the Supernatural Mysteries by Olivia Blacke. From the attention-grabbing opening, to the humor sprinkled throughout, to the ghostly shenanigans as an unlikely duo pair up to solve a mystery, this book is a terrific start to what I hope is a long-running series! Written in alternating perspectives—the ghost of middle-aged Cordelia Graves and twenty-year-old Ruby Young—the story centers on trying to solve the murder of their neighbor, after the police write it off as a mugging gone wrong. The unique premise of a ghost and a young woman teaming together to solve mysteries intrigued me and the more I read, the humorous writing, the fun characters, and the crafty plot kept me glued to the pages. The story had a good pace and as the plot thickened, I found myself unable to put the book down until I’d read the last page. And even then, I wished the next book was already available to find out what happens next!

I was provided with an advance copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book has a great premise. It was a wee bit wordy for me but I’m definitely interested in the thread that was left unanswered. So I will check out next book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advance readers copy in exchange for an honest review. Loved this mystery with humour.

I was excited to see this book and get approved. I was super into the first few pages but unfortunately the pacing and repetition were a bit much for me. It took me longer than I anticipated to read this. I kept picking up other books or getting some tracked.

Cheers for unlikely duo bonding and solving a case. I wasn't as fond of the parts for Ruby. I think I'd have been fine just reading this from the one POV.

This book had so much potential. I'm a huge fan of cozy mysteries (especially ones with ghosts!) but this one missed the mark for me.

One of my biggest complaints is that Cordelia and Ruby are the most stereotypical caricatures of GenX vs GenZ. It's almost like the author did a quick Internet search on the lingo or vibes of each age and threw them all into her two main characters. (ie. GenZ can't read cursive so how in the world could a GenX ghost communicate with her??? *eye roll*) It almost felt like they had no personality of their own besides their generations.

The miscommunication trope also got old very fast for me. I understand that death does make for complications when trying to solve a murder with someone but, sheesh.

It wasn't a bad read, just didn't itch the cozy mystery scratch for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC of this book.

I really enjoyed the storyline of this book and was not expecting the plot twist that happened. The book kept my attention and is an excellent read. This is the first book. I have read by this author and look forward to reading more.

CSI Meets Ghost Hunters: A Snorting Coffee Kind of Funny

Cordelia Graves was nobody’s fool. And it was that savviness that told her something about her was different this morning. With her brain cells in high gear, it didn’t take long for her to realize that the difference was that she was dead—and she surely wasn’t yesterday. Funny that she couldn’t remember dying, but while the bout of amnesia was strange, her literally tripping over her former across-the-hall neighbor was downright bizarre. The lifeless body barefoot and half-buried in snow, the sight was tantamount to someone waving a checkered flag while shouting ‘Go Daytona!’ in her face. And while she was game to try being a detective, the post-mortem condition she was in just wasn’t conducive to tackling a full-fledged homicide investigation on her lonesome … especially since no one could see or hear her. It meant finding someone to act as intermediary and a certain Gen Z’er renting her vacated apartment would do just fine—if only they could quit fighting long enough to find the killer.

This is the premise of NEW LEASE ON DEATH, Olivia Blacke’s targeted arrow of a book! I was in the enviable position of being invited to read an ARC copy, and am I ever glad I accepted! Ghosts, humor, and solid mystery abound in this whodunit that never takes its foot off the pedal. The pacing set to “high”, Cordelia and her Gen Z’er buddy Ruby James tear up Boston in an all-bets-off effort to uncover who murdered the man obsessed with women and pizza—and not necessarily in that order. The dialogue spot on, Cordelia & Co. are at their hilarious best thanks to the author’s inventive way of slinging out grammar the way your favorite singer belts out tunes.

In terms of writing, the novel is pure pleasure all the way through. The unexpected delights of snark and sarcasm bring on the laughs as the narration hits all the right spots. The descriptive passages are impeccably handled and help bring the story to life … or is it death? Whatever it is, it works! Especially the moments when Cordelia is trying to figure out the new rules of what she can and can’t do after death. Rules such as possessing the ability to walk through walls, but not when carrying anything breakable.

So go ahead! Take the plunge. I highly recommend NEW LEASE ON DEATH. and am giving it five stars. I thank both NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ARC copy, and thank Ms. Blacke for the very original and entertaining ride. She is a superb storyteller and I had the bestest of ghost crime-solving times!