Publication Sept. 29, 2026
Although I'm a long time Cleo Coyle fan, this was the first time encountering this series. I didn't beat myself up, however, when I heard it was written under a pen name. That's a common practice of authors in all genres, so no surprise. In this case, we have young widow Pen/Penelope who has moved back to town to help out her aunt in a struggling bookshop. While helping make some changes, she discovers a long-time bookshop regular. Just one problem. He's a ghost. Killed in the bookshop. Fortunately for Pen's seeming habit of stumbling across murder investigations, he was also a private eye, albeit from the wise-cracking, gumshoe, hard-boiled detective era. His skills and investigative skills come in handy even if his abilities are somewhat hampered. I'll leave that to you to find out why. Needless to say, his help comes in handy when Dory, known for her writing of local obituaries, is killed in the bookshop after the signing of her first book.
The series is, as it turns out, a rebirth of sorts, but with new adventures, so don't hesitate to jump into it again if you were a past reader. I enjoyed the characters, finding the ghostly Jack Shepherd somewhat gruff at times but at the same time likable and even charming at times. True, his opinion that Pen use old style methods to elicit information don't work on her but he means well and does seem to have a knack of having her back when needed. Pen still seems a bit of a hesitant detective type but seems to be a fast learner. I may have to go find the initial offerings of the series just to see how it all began in more detail than this book offers although what is revealed here should be sufficient for most. The dream sequences Jack provides are not only helpful to Pen but offer up a cold case mystery for readers to try to solve, too, a bonus. You'll meet quite a few of the seemingly regulars of the series, too, as well as be reminded how narrow some small town focuses can be where status and family are involved. Having worked off and on to create my own family tree, I can definitely attest that digging into family history can reveal both saints and sinners as well as everything in-between, so to have family history pop up here was a fun perk for me. It also provides several suspects, that's for sure. And that's before Pen starts digging which is when things get far more complicated.
Bottom line, not to give away much more of the plot, this was a fun read and I'm glad I was intrigued enough by the title, which you'll clearly understand as you read, to request a review copy. It did take me a few pages to sort out that Pen was communicating with Jack by talking to him in her mind, no aloud, though slip ups were surely inevitable. She's also dealing with a son and wary family members. So, not just murder, but some family drama and lots of fun chatter with a wise-cracking ghost detective. I'm curious how Coyle will go from here with these characters, so already looking forward to the next book. Thanks #KensingtonPublishing for his early peek at the rebirth of an ol' series. Sounds like Pen's future is about to get more and more interesting, so glad Jack is around to help, even if she probably needs to keep a sweater handy when he appears.
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