Rating: 4.5 🌈
Crawshanks Guide to the Recently Departed just got better with Case 2: Mrs. Delores Abernathy. I’m impressed with the manner in which Cassidy is crafting the ghosts “stuck” between worlds. It’s got a very different, humane feeling to it than other takes.
As it was with Dusty, it becomes just as poignant and as much a emotional journey here with Delores Abernathy. Delores is a sweet elderly woman suffering from Alzheimer’s , who’s poisoned in the same full care home as Tristan’s father. The ghosts who die before their allotted time are caught in a loop, forced to stay as they died until Tristan can help them move through whatever is keeping them here.
In this case, Delores the ghost still has Alzheimer’s, which makes it difficult to figure out how to help her, let alone who murdered her. Delores, a periphery gentle character becomes a strong narrative presence by emotional means of her illness and by association with Tristan’s father, who’s state in the same facility is ever worsening.
Both people make a huge impact on the readers as themselves and by the loving nature of the relationships a they have made with their families.
Both heartbreaking and heartfelt.
Of course Dusty is back, a lively, fabulous ghostly guide, when she chosen to be. But part of this storyline belongs to her and her great bestie and fellow drag Queen Chan. Cassidy intertwines their own pain/loss with the current case in a way that’s beautiful, sad, and wryly funny.
Tristan’s and Inspector Danny Hayes’ relationship, a wonderful aspect of this series, keeps moving forward. Typical of this couple, nothing about it is smooth. Gawky, awkward, painful, sexy, and in this actual case , full of ghosts and a secret that Tristan needs to divulge.
The story is almost a 5. There’s a cliffhanger. Not really one I mind actually. It’s more a hint of the next mystery to come. But it’s still a tiny one that introduces new major characters.
I can’t wait!
If you love a great mystery, paranormal characters and romance, here a fabulous story and series for you. Read them in the order they are written for characters and storylines development.
Crawshanks Guide to the Recently Departed series:
✓ Case 1: Miz Dusty Le Frey
✓ Case #2 : Mrs Delores Abernathy
◦ (Cold) Case #3: Mr. Brian Reyes -TBD
Goodreadshttps://www.goodreads.com › showDead Serious Case #2 Mrs Delores Abernathy by Vawn Cassidy
Description:
In the business of unfinished business…
It’s been over six months since a freak accident left pathologist Tristan Everett able to see ghosts, something he has yet to confess to his boyfriend. Instead, he now has a new calling, one he’s not entirely happy about… help the dead resolve their unfinished business so they can pass into the light, sounds simple right?
Wrong…
When the spirit of a sweet old lady suffering from Alzheimers follows him home he has no idea how to help her. When he finds out she’s been murdered by arsenic poisoning, a curiously outdated murder weapon, he once again finds himself tangled up in a murder investigation.
For Inspector Danny Hayes of New Scotland Yard, life couldn’t be better. After moving to London and meeting Tristan he’s ready to move their relationship to the next level, but something weird is going on with Tristan, he’s acting very strangely and with a killer on the loose he’s not taking any chances. He’s determined to discover whatever it is Tristan’s hiding from him.
Surrounded by a bunch of potentially murderous old ladies and aided by his sidekick, deceased drag queen and spirit guide in training, Dusty, Tristan must unravel the mystery of Mrs Delores Abernathy’s unfinished business and find the courage to share his deepest secret with the man he loves.
From author Wendy Saunders writing as Vawn Cassidy, comes the second book in this funny and touching paranormal MM romance/dark comedy suspense series.
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Unless it’s noted, all books reviewed have been purchased by the reviewer.
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 