Deader Homes and Gardens

A spooky tale of a haunted mansion, evil spirits, and Egyptian curses will leave your poor nails bitten to the quick in this exciting paranormal cozy mystery.

Verity Long has given up her graphic design business to become a full-time ghost hunter. With gangster ghost Frankie by her side to lend her his power to The Other Side, Verity awaits her first ghost hunting job. When Lee, the last heir to the very haunted Rock Fall mansion, calls her in to investigate, Verity has to battle a murderous spirit hell bent on keeping the secrets of Rock Fall from being uncovered.

I could not put this down and read this in one evening. I can’t remember the last time I read a cozy mystery with this much depth, it reminded me of the early Ghost Hunter books by Victoria Laurie; a scary baddie, lots of thrills & chills, a sprinkling of horror, a dash of humor, and that creepy kind of suspense that raises the hair on the back of your neck.

“Lord have mercy. Dozens of doll heads, broken from their bodies, stared up at me through the gently moving water in the basin. Their eyes opened wide, their cracked mouths smiled. My blood went cold.”

My blood went cold reading that. *shiver*

The plot surrounds the Treadwell family, who died mysteriously after a cache of Ancient Egyptian treasures were brought home after a dig in the early part of the 20th century, was excellent, very well written with lots of red herrings and plot twists. The ghosts were the stars of this book, from the mute little girl, Charlotte to the scarred Governess to Frankie, the gangster who blackmails Verity into allowing a gangster get-together in her backyard in return for his help. Complete with flapper girls, a jazz band, and a spectral craps table, it sounded like the kind of happening party anyone would want to be caught dead at. I loved the descriptions of the grounds at the mansion, a beautiful abandoned garden left to grow wild. My Secret-Garden-obsessed self was in heaven. I’d love to explore something like that (but without the evil ghosts, thanks)

While there are references to previous books, they don’t distract from the plot, so this can be read as a standalone but you will want to read the other books after reading this one!

Overall, an exceptional cozy mystery for any time of year, but especially good for a Halloween read.

This is such a fun series!

I found the first on NetGalley and to be honest, I can’t say what made me request it because ghosts and the like are usually not my sort of thing. But there was something about it that sounded interesting and I’m super glad I did because I really, really enjoy these books.

Verity accidentally emptied out the ashes of a dead 1920’s gangster named Frankie and in the process she “tethered” him to her property. Now he can’t go anywhere unless Verity takes Frankie’s urn with her. Together they’ve formed a bit of a ghost busting team – Frankie has the ability to let Verity tune in to the supernatural plane, seeing the spirits and even being able to interact with them in a way that other people can’t. Throughout the series they’ve solved a few mysteries, helped some ghosts be reunited and even dealt with a couple of annoyed poltergeists.

Frankie and Verity have such an interesting friendship and it keeps me laughing throughout each installment. Frankie is so frustrated about being dead (and very touchy about how he came to be dead) and he’s kind of unaware that times have moved on. It’s all about underground speakeasys, dames, dolls, bootleg whiskey, poker games and guns. He wants to reconnect with his pals but he generally can’t do that unless Verity takes him somewhere so in this novel he kind of works out a deal whereby if Verity wants his help to solve a case, she has to give him something in return. It’s occasionally a bit fractious but banter aside they are developing a pretty cool connection.

I love the romance in these stories too, although it’s understated and not at all the dominant focus. After a disastrous almost-wedding in which her mother-in-law then stuck her with an enormous bill, Verity was thrown together with her former fiance’s brother Ellis who is also a local officer of the law. The first book is an awesome simmering attraction combined with a mutual dislike and misconception and from that it’s evolved into a comfortable but still complicated-by-various-things relationship. Ellis is a great character – he was incredibly skeptical of Verity at first, his opinion coloured by the events that had taken place. But the more he saw, the more he began to believe her and now he’s her staunchest supporter and is always willing to go along for the ride as back up.

Sometimes these stories actually go in a much darker direction than I expect – I still keep thinking it’ll be super fluffy and light but some of these spirits are tortured and savage souls and it can get pretty tense! I like the way Verity becomes invested in the mysteries – even when it gets scary as all heck and she should probably run away, she can’t bring herself to leave the situation unfinished and she keeps going back in order to sort out the problems best she can. I always look forward to the next installment to see what Verity has got herself into and how her relationship with Ellis is progressing. It’s fun learning more about Frankie and his friends too and I’m so curious about whether or not we’ll find out what actually happened to him.

8/10