Karen S. (CacaoBear) reviewed on 10/1/2023 + 87 more book reviews

This is book 5 in the Pepper Martin series, and while you could read it as a stand-alone, she frequently refers back to things that happened in the earlier books, not in a way that this story wouldn't make sense, but for the sake of continuity, it's probably better to read them in order. Pepper Martin sees ghosts, and in typical ghostly-cozy fashion, she then has to solve the mystery of who murdered the ghost-to-be so that they can cross over and be at peace. The twist in this volume is that the ghost wasn't murdered, but was accused and convicted of killing someone else, and died on his first day in prison "of a broken heart". Meh. I've liked the earlier Pepper Martin books, but this one .. I dunno. I was really annoyed by the on-again, off-again ambivalence between Pepper and the police detective she is sleeping with (I can't say boyfriend). And I felt there were some serious lapses in logic in the mystery and the action scenes. As an example (SPOILER?): The ghost claimed he was framed, but his own gun was the murder weapon, and NOBODY - not the original investigators or Pepper - ever asked, "Who could have access to or have taken the gun from the locked desk in your home?" I mean THAT was my first (and still lingering) question and it was never adressed. Also, something was off in the way the characters interacted. So I just don't think this was as good as it might have been.

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