GHOST TO THE RESCUE by Carolyn Hart

Publisher:     Berkley

Published:     October 4, 2016

ISBN:        978-0425276570

Genre:      Cozy Mystery

Format:     Print

Obtained via:  Publisher

Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina  myreviewbooks@aol.com

THREE HEARTS 

Bailey Ruth Raeburn has once again been sent back to her home town of Adelaide, Oklahoma.  This time it’s not to solve a murder, at least initially…it is to help a single mother, Deidre Davenport, who is also an author, to get past a bad case of writer’s block.  On top of her writer’s block Deidre is up for a professorship at the nearby college.  Unfortunately the final cut is not going to be made based on her talent or ability to teach.  No, Jay Knox will make his decision based on how Deidre pleases him in bed. Just as Jay is about to seduce Deidre Bailey Ruth materializes and stops the attack…but apparently not for long.  Jay leaves Deidre with a threat that she’d better deliver or else.

Since the announcement of the new professor will be made at an author’s conference Deidre does her best to go forward without giving into Jay’s demand.  The conference is chock full of members of the publishing community – editors, agents and authors including a self-published author who is also in the running for the teaching job.  Before the new professor can be announced though, Jay is found – murdered.  Unfortunately for Deidre, she is the one who finds him and it’s up to Bailey Ruth to prove the single mother/author did not do the deed.

Carolyn Hart’s Bailey Ruth mystery series is full of fun possibilities due to the fact that the man character is a ghost…excuse me Wiggins, a heavenly emissary.  Even with the formulaic writing the Bailey Ruth stories follow, the situations she can find herself in are endless.  One of my pet peeves, even in fiction, is that a little research can go a long way.  Hart does play fast and loose with police procedure and I struggling accepting with how Bailey Ruth tampers with evidence in each of the books.  It raises the question of whether or not it’s really okay for a ghost to manipulate a situation – tamper with evidence – to bring about the result she wants, even if it is the right result.  If you can suspend your disbelief and accept that that’s okay, the stories will work for you.

What GHOST TO THE RESCUE a fun read were the characters and premise of the book—a writer’s conference.  Readers get a little glimpse into the world of an editor and an agent and a piece of their jobs.  The addition of a self-published author and the lengths he will go to get his book out made for an interesting situation. 

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

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