Tag: LGBTGIA paranormal mystery series

Review: Ghostly Dilemma (Ghostly Book 8) by E M Leya

Rating:  4.5🌈

The Ghostly series by EM Leya is going strong as demonstrated by Ghostly Dilemma, the eighth book in this excellent paranormal law enforcement series.  With the romantic relationship between ME Lance and Det. Angus is happy and they’ve moved in together, along with their dog Haunt.  Frank, Angus’ partner has recently bought a home, and Lance’s older brother is leaving the military and coming back home. They’ve even gotten back Carrie (recovering from the hostage situation) and acquired a new receptionist. Things are going well. 

So it’s time to get back to work, small caseloads, different jobs, various storylines.  And by switching it up from a singular dramatic plot line to an almost typical workload for both the police department and medical examiner staff, Leya gives the readers a diverse range of cases and people’s stories and experiences that the characters and departments deal with.  

And the author is able to demonstrate once again how well it’s not the high drama that can make a heartbreaking impact but sometimes it’s life’s smallest and most quiet stories that hit the hardest.  Here not all the ghosts are victims, some are those who left life behind in natural causes or silent, peaceful moments. But, of course, not all.   Leya makes each ghost a vibrant personality, no matter how they left their lives behind.  We also see what happens to the people and lives they have lost.  That’s reality too. 

Each one a case of different lengths but each fascinating and of importance to the lives of those around Lance and Angus, a found family that continues to grow in numbers, both living and ghostly. 

I adore this series because it’s so different in its approach to the ghostly world, and the way the author tells the stories associated with the people around the main characters as well as the characters themselves.  

I’m highly excited to see what the next book will bring.  And definitely recommending this series and story.  Read these in the order they are written. 

What a treat they are!

Ghostly series:

  • Ghostly Awakening #1
  • Ghostly Findings #2
  • Ghostly Envy #3
  • Ghostly Claus #4 
  • Ghostly Target #5 
  • Ghostly Hostage #6
  • Ghostly Death #7
  • Ghostly Dilemma #8 
  • Ghostly Bother #9 (coming soon)

Buy Link:

        Ghostly Dilemma

    

Blurb

Sometimes it’s the little cases.

Not every minute of being a detective is spent solving huge murder cases. Sometimes it’s the little ones that take up Detective Young’s life, like the seventy-year-old cold case that suddenly fell into his lap or figuring out if a death was suicide or murder.

Lance spends most of his time working cases that no one hears about. The unattended deaths of those not under a doctor’s care take up most of his time. Now that he can speak to ghosts, some of those cases are the most interesting. Work isn’t all that is keeping him busy—his brother’s girlfriend has shown up in need of his help, and he can’t refuse when she’d helped him so much in the past.

Life is never boring for Lance and Angus, and though work pulls them both in different directions, they always seem to meet up somewhere in the middle of things. Sometimes it feels like if murder and death didn’t bring them together, they’d never get time together at all.

  • Publisher: E.L. Publishing (October 6, 2024)
  • Publication date: October 6, 2024
  • Language: English
  • Print length: 234 pages

Review: Dead Serious Case #2 : Mrs Delores Abernathy (Crawshanks Guide to the Recently Departed) by Vawn Cassidy

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.