Whitney is working to convert the house of the head master of a private school with her partner when she finds a bullet that calls into question the supposed murder/suicide of the headmaster and his wife. Sawdust, the cat, is worried about his mistress Whitney who is preoccupied by the deaths. As new clues arise more suspects emerge. Carpentry and curiosity go hand in hand. Cozy murder worth reading.

Dead Post Society was a very good read. I enjoyed it very much. It takes place in the town of Ridgetop, Tenhnessee. Whitney Flynn is the main character who works with her cousin, Buck in restoring and flipping houses. Collin Flynn is her husband wo works as a homicide detective for the Metro Nashville Police Department. They have been married less than a year. Buck and his wife, Colette, who is a professional chef have just become new parents. They are both working for Buck's father, Roger Whitaker who owns a carpentry business called Whitaker Woodworking. He has asked them to go in with him on this new project.They have been hired by Troy Loflin a developer who has purchased an old boarding school on 18 acres called Ridgetop Prep. He plans to make the old school into a resort style community for seniors. He wants Whitaker Woodworking to do the work. He and his wife both attended the high school and have many good memories of their time there.

Whitney and Buck get to the old school early and are waiting for Roger and Owen to arrive to meet with Troy for a tour of the property. Buck and Owen are brothers. While Buck is napping Whitney sees an old old victorian house hidden in the trees behind the 3 buildings. Whitney decides to go and check the house out. There is a small iron fence around it. The house looks beyond repair. She goes onto the porch and into the house. She is surprised how well the inside is perserved. It has all the furniture still in it. Buck comes into the house to find Whitney and they both look around. While leaving and on the porch Whitney notices something at the bottom of one of the posts. It is a bullet. She planned to show it to her husband when she got home.

When Troy gets there he takes them on a tour of the buildings. They go into the first building which was the art room. There are old pictures of art. There are two pictures of two woman with her heart cut out and put on the other - twins. The painting was called "The Two Fridas painted by Frida Kahlo. It was a self-portrait. She was married to Diego Rivera who had many affairs. The picture represented the Frida that he loved and the Frida that he didn't. In her diary she stated it was an inspiration of a childhood friend. It represented an identity crisis. The school became an art school for art and performing art.

Work had already started in cleaning up the inside. The last class was in 1982. While showing the buildings they came to the victorian house. Loftin said it was a beautiful house. It was the headmaster's. He said that once the antique dealer came for the furniture the building would be demolished. He said that the headmaster and his wife had been shot and died in the study. It looked like the headmaster had killed his wife and then himself. The murder had happened 3 years after they had graduated. Their names were Dr. Irving and Rosalyn (Rosie) Finster. The case had never been closed. Rosie taught piano and voice and lead the choir. She helped direct the musical theatre performances. Everyone loved her. There had been a rumor that she and Mr. Noy were having an affair.

Whitney told Loflin that she and Buck had toured the house before he arrived. Would Loflin consider selling the house to them. They wanted to restore it. He said his wife felt the same way. He said that he would consider their offer. He told them that his workman had heard footsteps upstairs and two of them said they had seen moving shadows. After reviewing everything Whitney came up with a price and after checking with Buck they presented their proposal to Loflin. He accepted their proposal. It was planned to be a small boutique hotel. He also threw in the furniture to seal the deal.

Whitney decided to look into the murder. There were two articles about the murder. One was Adam Joule who taught advanced math and physics. He had gone to school with Irving. He said that Irving did his best but was dealing with alot of problems but did not mention what the problems were. The second article was from Carole Tiller, theatre teacher. She said that Rosie had been a good friend. She was a wonderful person and sadly missed. The death had taken place on Friday, March 12th. There were pictures of the house as well as pictures of the couple. She decided to look them up and speak to them.

This is where the story takes off. There is too much to put all on paper. I will leave it to the reader to enjoy to the exciting and scary ending.

Thank you NetGalley and Minotaur Booksk for this ARC.

Dead Post Society by Diane Kelly is the seventh book in the house-flipper series. I have read several of the books and really enjoyed them.
Whitney Whitaker is now married, and the story starts with her cousin and business partner, Buck, welcoming a baby into the family. Whitney is now married to her detective boyfriend.
Buck and Whitney help their uncle’s woodworking business remodel a boarding school.
There is an old house on the property- so they purchase it to flip.
Whitney decides to try and solve the murder that happened in the house.
The story is good and worth reading. I enjoyed all the books in the series. Thanks for a copy for an honest review.

I love this series, and this book is a great addition. This story follows the main character as she tries to solve a cold case. This is a cozy mystery with a strong female lead, a great mystery, and I love all of the side characters. If you enjoy cozy mysteries, then you should really read this series.

I enjoyed Whitney and her cousin Buck start a new house flip. As they work for their uncle on a woodworking project, they come across an old house that Whitney decides would be great to flip. The timeline in the book lasted a long time so at times it did bog down. I did think Whitney's choice to get involved in solving the decades old mystery to be a bit of a stretch. I live in Huntsville and there is no Marine training base. I realize that this is just being picky, but I do feel that an author should be somewhat accurate. It was an enjoyable book overall and a good addition to this series.

"Dead Post Society (House-Flipper Mystery #7)" by Diane Kelly starts with Whitney's cousin/business partner in, Buck, welcoming his first child. Then it jumps to Whitney and her Uncle's crew checking out an old boarding school for a big renovation job. While there Whitney finds an old Victorian house with some serious history and convinces the property owner to sell it to her.

While Whitney and her cousin work on flipping the house into a B&B she finds out the tragic case of a murder suicide. However, no one is really sure that's how things went down. Whitney is well placed to search for new clues since it's as if no one bothered to clear out the house and left most of the school untouched after the deaths in the house.

Book 7 of the House Flipper Mystery series is as much fun as books 1-6. The adventure starts out with the birth of Buck and Collette’s baby daughter. This sweet event starts Whitney thinking that maybe she and Collin might consider adding a baby to their lives. But, first she has to finish rehabbing the mansion on a boarding school property that is being converted to a senior living center. While working on the tear down, she discovers a bullet in a porch column which sends her down the road to solve a 40 year old murder case. As always, she puts herself in peril, much to Collin’s dismay, but in the end, she is successful. My advanced reader copy was provided by NetGalley, but the opinion is my own.

mental-health-issues, mental-health-awareness, depression, amateur-sleuth, local-law-enforcement, Tennessee, small-town, small-business, friendship, friends, relationships, renovation, relatives, cozy-mystery, cold-case, verbal-humor, local-history, investigations, book-within-a-book, unpleasant-suspect, psychopath, contemporary*****

Buck and Whitney are cousins and partners in a property flipping business, have been involved in solving several murders, and Whitney is married to the local Homicide Detective.
They begin by helping uncle work on an old and neglected residential school to turn it into a resort/residence for wealthy elderly complete with clinics and shops. There is an old Victorian on the property that Whitney really falls for but it has a tragic history because of an apparent murder/suicide in 1982 that the sheriff's department has never quite closed. The investigation is very interesting and has many a well-placed misdirection. I thought it was riveting and was interested in the snippets of classic poetry beginning each chapter, and even more so with all of the fascinating teaching moments involving the rehab process as well as the local real history.
I requested and received a temporary uncorrected digital galley from St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books via NetGalley. Avail Apr 01, 2025.
#Dead Post Society by @dianekellybooks #HouseFlipperMysteriesBk7 @minotaur_books @stmartinspress #cozymystery #murdermystery #NetGalley @goodreads @bookbub @librarythingofficial @barnesandnoble ***** Review #booksamillion #bookshop_org #bookshop_org_uk #kobo #Waterstones #crimeFiction #MentalHealth #depression #teaching #rehabbing

An above average read with a minimum of characters. I personally prefer less characters and more plot and this book delivered just that. Well written an engaging story line and well developed characters. If one prefers substance over instead of a lot of distracting characters and dialogue this book will keep you engaged.

Family House Flipping Cozy
Ms. Kelly hits it out of the park with this addition to the House Flipper Series. Cousins Buck and Whitney have a house flipping business and found a great old abandoned Victorian on the property they weer helping Buck's dad's crew work on. They quickly put in a bid and got it.....and a glimpse into it's dark history. Whitney couldn't accept the story she was told and launched her own investigation while working on the historical. Many twists and turns before the end and a peek at mental illness ans perceived mental illness. Great family ties and loving couples. It was hard to put down and I highly recommend it.
I received an arc from NetGalley gratis and offer my opinion I the same.

Dead Post Society follows Whitney Whitaker, who works as a house flipper with her cousin and uncle. the family starts a job working on reconstructing an old prep academy, turning it into a nursing home instead. a victorian home resides on the property, once the home of the academy’s headmaster and wife, where a supposed murder-suicide took place forty years ago, but Whitney doesn’t think that’s the case.

As someone who hasn’t read any of the previous six books in this series, I enjoyed it! It was easy to catch on to who was what and pre-established relations and details. I thought that house flipping was a really unique concept in the cozy mysteries genre, which usually takes place with the owner of some sort of bakery or small shop.

My biggest wish is that this had a bit more of a paranormal focus——ghosts and strange behaviors were mentioned three times maximum, and the idea of a haunted house cozy had really excited me. Instead it was just a small mention of a figure out of the corner of Whitney’s eye, or her and another worker hearing footsteps in the house where the deaths had taken place. I would’ve loved for more of that!

Overall, I give the novel a 3.5 out of 5 stars, and may check out the rest of the series from the beginning in the near future. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for a review.

Another great entry in the house flipper mystery series! I also continue to love Sawdust's interlude chapters. This book can be read as a stand-alone. It was fun to re-visit this town and see what Courtney was up to and try to solve the mystery along with her.

I love the renovation cozy mystery trope. As someone with a fixer upper of her own and a true crime obsession it just makes me so happy! This was perfect! The storyline was well fleshed out, the characters make you fall in love, the cover was classically cozy. I can't wait to read more by this author!

My favorite cozy mystery series! It was no surprise to me that I found this book just as entertaining as the other books in the series. Following along with Whitney is always so fun and you never know what kind of trouble she’s going to encounter. This one has a bit of a twist with her looking into a cold case rather than solving something new. The pace of the book kept me so invested and I couldn’t wait to see how things would play out. There’s lots of action and unexpected moments. So much fun from start to finish!

Thank you so much NetGalley, Diane Kelly, and St. Martin’s press for the arc!

Dead Post Society is another fantastic book in this series.
Whitney and Buck, cousins and house flippers have the opportunity to work on an old prep school. They history behind the school is dark and tragic, but Whitney feels a connection to the head master's house and makes an offer to purchase it.
Whitney has a lot of questions about this house and the tragedy that took place in it, and her questions soon stir up the possibility that things aren't as they seem.
I found myself intrigued by the story and the way the author portrayed the characters.
This is my favorite book in the series so far.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for selecting me to read an advanced copy of this book.

An elite prep school outside of Nashville, long closed and fallen into disrepair, a potential murder/suicide, and a plan to redevelop it all as an upscale retirement community. Whitney Whitaker and her cousin Buck are hard at work on this challenging project, but Whitney can’t seem to let go of her questions about the tragic event that led to the school’s hasty abandonment. As Whitney begins her own investigation, she finds herself in increasing danger.

Kelly has brought back all of the characters in Whitney’s life, including her beloved cat, Sawdust, and her supportive husband Collin, a police detective, in this seventh installment of the House Flipper mystery series. While it is part of a series, it can easily be read as a stand-alone. But beware, things are moving in Whitney’s personal life and you just may find yourself anxiously awaiting the next installment like I am.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

Through NetGalley, I received a free copy of DEAD POST SOCIETY (Book 7 of the House-Flipper cozy mystery series) by Diane Kelly– in exchange for an honest review. Whitney Whitaker Flynn and her cousin and business partner Buck Whitaker have just finished flipping and selling their recent project, so they are available to help out her uncle who has been contracted to renovate a derelict private school into a nursing home. Whitney and Buck end up purchasing the headmaster’s residence when they find out that, due to the property’s murderous history, the developer was planning to tear it down. Putting the Victorian’s renovation on hold while finishing work on the school is no burden since Whitney has discovered new clues that lead her to investigate the unresolved murder case. Meanwhile, poor Sawdust has been left to languish in loneliness with his step kitties while Whitney spends all of her spare time delving into the drama and politics of a 1980s private high school.

I liked this book and enjoy the series. I recommend this book to fans of the series and the series to fans of lighthearted cozy murder mysteries featuring renovations, family businesses, and sweet kitty sidekicks.

I loved how the story weaved the eerie elements of the headmaster’s unsolved murder into Whitney’s determined efforts to breathe life back into the crumbling property. The pacing felt spot-on, with twists that kept me guessing and a richly atmospheric setting that gave me goosebumps. Overall, it is clever, suspenseful, and irresistibly fun.

This was a strong seventh entry in the House-Flipper Mystery series, it had that element that I was looking for and enjoyed the overall concept that was promised. The characters were everything that I was looking for and enjoyed the element of mystery in this, the overall feel worked and had that suspenseful atmosphere that I was looking for. Diane Kelly has a strong writing style and am glad I read this.

This is the seventh book in this series, and in my opinion it is the best one yet!

Whitney and Buck are helping Uncle Roger with a project. A former student has purchased the old boarding school and is turning it into a retirement community. However the developer does not want the huge Victorian house next door. The headmaster and his wife died in what they said was a murder suicide. But Whitney has already fallen in love with the house, complete with everything inside, which may include a ghost?!

As work begins, Whitney finds evidence that may prove the couple were murdered.

This was such a fun history lesson and ghost story and just all around great story.


NetGalley/ St. Martin’s Press April 01, 2025