“Actually 3.5 Stars
This is the first book in Juliet Blackwell's Haunted Home Renovation Mystery series.
In this book we meet Mel(anie) Turner of owner of Turner Construction. Mel has taken over the company from her family; when her sisters became of age they fled the business and when her mother passed her father lost interest & turned the business over to her. Mel's mother always had a keen "sense" of which houses would be best to renovate & "flip" and it seem that Mel has inherited her gift.
Mel has just come into the business and is asked to look at a historic house that was built as a twin and is now being renovated in order to be "flipped"....
When Mel arrives she finds that there had been a "demolition" party the previous night and one of the principles, Matt, is passed out on the sofa. Upon going upstairs with Matt to inspect the damage done at the party the idea man behind the flip, Kenneth (whom Mel detests), staggers in with a nail gun in his hand & begins to shoot at them. Kenneth then falls and Mel & Matt discover that Kenneth's hand has not only been severed off but he has been shot full of nails.... Mel holds Kenneth, comforting him until the EMTs come and take him to the hospital.
Driving home Kenneth appears to Mel and continues to appear....slightly bewildered but clearly in need of help. There are other ghosts in the house but they refuse to interact with Kenneth....
As Mel & Matt begin to work on the renovation things begin to happen: break-ins, assaults, fire, and more ghostly phenomena. As the history of the house is slowly revealed all the pieces of the puzzle begin to fit together.....
This is quick, easy & entertaining read. I have read another series by Blackwell, witchcraft mysteries, which (as witchcraft mysteries go), I prefer to many of the other similar series that have been published.”
