Mar 3, 2023
Is it any wonder I love the Haunted Bookshop cozy mystery series so much?
(From The Ghost and the Haunted Portrait, where the theme is pulp painted covers)
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Malaysia
seen from Türkiye
seen from Philippines
seen from Germany
seen from Mexico
seen from United States
seen from Mexico
seen from Türkiye
seen from Malaysia
seen from South Korea
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Türkiye
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
Is it any wonder I love the Haunted Bookshop cozy mystery series so much?
(From The Ghost and the Haunted Portrait, where the theme is pulp painted covers)
Favorite Books of 2018 (in alphabetical order) - #2
Ellie Jordan: Ghost Trappers by J.L Bryan; paranormal mystery that was free on Kindle, but turned out to be really good.
Guidebook to Murder by Lynn Cahoon; cozy mystery w/romance.
Lending a Paw by Laurie Cass; cozy mystery w/cat.
Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie; Miss Marple’s last case, and one of her best. (Also the only Christie I read this year. Will remedy that in 2019.)
The Ghost and the Bogus Bestseller by Cleo Coyle; cozy mystery w/ghost and romance. After almost ten years, we finally get the next book in this series, and it was worth the wait. Only complaint: I really wish the author(s) had stuck with the pen name of Alice Kimberly instead of switching over to Cleo Coyle. A sense of wrongness strikes me because of this, when I look at it on my bookshelf.
SHOT IN THE DARK By Cleo Coyle I don't usually ask for a book after it has been released as I enjoy this group of stories based on a coffee shop in New York City.
A surprise Sunday delivery, but by no means an unwelcome one!
I don’t treat myself often, and always feel guilty when I do, but will allow myself to bask in the pleasure of new books for a little while before that sets in.
The Ghost Goes to the Dogs by Cleo Coyle - Book Review
Happy Thursday! The Ghost Goes to the Dogs by Cleo Coyle has Penelope embroiled in another mystery. Check out my thoughts on the 9th A Haunted Bookshop Mystery. Happy Reading!
https://bibliophileandavidreader.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-ghost-goes-to-dogs-by-cleo-coyle.html
The Haunted Bookshop is a cozy mystery series written by Alice Alfonsi and her husband Marc Cerasini under the pen name Alice Kimberly. The first five books were published from 2004 to 2009, and then the series went on hiatus as Alfonsi and Cerasini focused on their other series, the Coffeehouse Mysteries, written under the pen name Cleo Coyle (*).
Alfonsi and Cerasini had created a pretty fun mix of cozy mystery and P.I. fiction, and I was very happy when the series resumed in 2018.
So, why do I love it so much?
The main character, Penelope Thorton-McClure, follows all the rules of the cozy genre: after the death of her husband, she left the big city and her former life for her small New England hometown and revamped her Aunt's old bookstore, turning it into a brand new bookstore specialized in mysteries. And as the name of the series would suggest, she found a ghost in the process: Jack Shepard, 1940s hardboiled P.I., murdered in her shop decades ago.
This setup allows the writers to insert some flashbacks set during Jack's heydays, dream sequences where Pen tags along with Jack on cases that will give her clues on her current investigation.
When I read the original five books in the second half of the 2000s I never questioned the reality of the ghost's existence. In fact, I expected and dreaded the usual power creep so frequent in paranormal mysteries and urban fantasy. But contrary to the other ghost P.I. series I can think of, the Haunted Bookshop mysteries never veer into paranormal territory. Jack only speaks to Penelope, meets her in her dreams, and sometimes helps her by manifesting a sudden gush of wind.
But when I read the newer mysteries I realized the series works just as well if Jack is only a figment of Pen's imagination, the idealized partner she's conjured to compensate the weak husband who abandoned her by jumping out a window. Pen grew up reading girl detective mysteries, her father's Black Mask collection is in the attic, she loves mysteries so much she's opened a bookstore specialized in mysteries, she investigates every murder she comes across. Of course a 1940s hardboiled P.I. is her perfect partner and dream lover.
(*) As you can see on the pics above, 2009's The Ghost and the Haunted Mansion was published as "Cleo Coyle writing as Alice Kimberly". I guess "Alice Alfonsi and Marc Cerasini writing as Cleo Coyle writing as Alice Kimberly" was found too unwieldy. Interestingly, the author bio in the books never made the identity of the authors and their other pen name a mystery.
Cleo Coyle–The Ghost and the Stolen Tears (The Haunted Bookshop #8)