Summary
Miss An’gel Ducote, her sister Dickce and their ward, Benjy, travel to Cliffwood, an historic home in Natchez, Mississippi. The Caitlins, Mary Turner and Henry Howard, have invited them into their home, which serves as a bed and breakfast for most of the year. The Ducote sisters were dear friends to Mary Turner’s grandmother. The Caitlins seem to be having issues with a ghost. Mary Turner hopes An’gel and Dickce can figure out what’s going on while the B&B is closed to guests for a little while.
Cliffwood isn’t as empty as the Caitlins expected it to be when the Ducotes arrive. Mrs. Primrose Pace is a psychic who claims she was summoned to the house to help them deal with spirits. Then Mary Turner’s distant cousin, Serenity, her lawyer, Truscott, and Serenity’s brother, Nathan, also arrive. Nathan is convinced that his branch of the family was cheated out of part of their inheritance. He’s determined to either find another will or pester Mary Turner until he gets what he wants.
While the ghost – or prankster – makes several appearances to the guests of the house, something even more sinister is going on when one of the guests ends up dead.
Review
I’m not much for ghost stories, so it took me a little while to find my rhythm with this book. Once all the players were in place, though, I was completely engrossed in trying to figure out whodunit.
I enjoy the Ducote sisters and their entourage, including their pets. It was nice to see them in a new setting with new characters and crimes. (This is the fourth book in the series.) The references to the Nancy Drew mysteries the sisters read as girls were fun. I read them as a kid along with the Bobbsey Twins and Trixie Belden mysteries. They set the foundation to my life-long love of mysteries with spunky protagonists. And the Ducote sisters, while in their 70s, certainly qualify as spunky!
Solid mystery in this one. I guessed wrong – and I was certain I was right. I enjoyed the surprise in the solution that I didn’t see coming. The ones that keep me wondering all the way to the end are almost as fun to read as the ones I am able to puzzle out.
I think readers can enjoy this mystery out of order, but to understand the sisters and their ward and how that all came together, it’s better to read the series in order. It’s going to be awhile until we see a 5th book in this series as the author has announced a shift to publishing two books per year in another series. This will give readers plenty of time to get caught up on this fun southern series if you haven’t been reading it all this time.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Berkley for an electronic review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.