{"id":7231,"date":"2026-09-23T07:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T14:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=7231"},"modified":"2026-09-23T07:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T14:11:11","slug":"cleo-coyle-the-ghost-and-the-dead-librarian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/cleo-coyle-the-ghost-and-the-dead-librarian\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleo Coyle: The Ghost and the Dead Librarian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Haunted Bookshop Detective #1<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This series appears new but is actually is a continuation of Coyle’s nine-book Haunted Bookshop Mystery series, published by Berkeley under the pseudonym Alice Kimberly. I’m so glad Kensington has picked up this series!<\/p>\n

Young widow Penelope Thornton-McClure and her Aunt Sadie own Buy the Books, a mystery bookshop in Quindicott, RI. (Isn’t that the best bookstore name ever?!) Unbeknownst to everyone except Pen and her cat Bookmark, the shop is haunted by the ghost of 1940s PI Jack Shepard. Jack died in the shop so he’s stuck there for eternity but he gladly helps Pen solve suspicious deaths in their town. Pen’s only rule: don’t haunt the customers.<\/p>\n

This book opens with Pen and Aunt Sadie hosting a book launch party for local librarian Dory McKenna\u2019s first book, a collection of local history and obituaries.\u00a0 Her research focused on obituaries so much that she jokingly referred to herself as \u201cThe Dead Librarian.\u201d At the party Dory is confronted by a reader offended by the inclusion of a family secret so it’s not surprising that before the night is over, Dory is found dead with her own obituary in her lap. Police quickly declare it a case of suicide. Pen and Jack are certain it’s a case of murder and set out to prove it.<\/p>\n

Jack has two ways to leave the the bookshop: he can share his past with Pen in her dreams and he can venture outside the shop if Pen carries his lucky coin. (Jack was carrying the coin when he died so his spirit is somehow connected to it.) If Pen carries the coin, he can speak to her. These are pretty clever ways of not limiting one of the two main characters to one location, although I must admit I was terrified Pen would lose the coin or it would be stolen. Chapters alternate between the current case and a historical case Jack shares with Pen in her dreams, where she learns more about Jack and how to be a good detective.<\/p>\n

Pen balances crime-solving with her own complicated life. Besides dealing with the bookstore and a ghost no one else can perceive, she also has to deal with her dead husband’s wealthy family who want control of her son, Spencer. They are sure Pen isn’t good enough, rich enough, or capable of raising a child. When it seems Spencer has seen Dory’s ghost, his grandparents fear for his sanity while everyone else wants him to talk about his supernatural experience. Pen has to protect Spencer from both of these threats while finding Dory’s murderer.<\/p>\n

I really like this series because it’s interesting blend of cozy and hard-boiled PI elements. Each chapter starts with a quote from a classic PI novel, Jack talks like a PI in a 1940s movie (of course), but there are also the cozy bookshop and cat. What a great combination! The humor is fun, too. Jack doesn’t understand references to modern technology and Pen doesn’t understand 1940s slang so some of their conversations are laugh out loud funny. Like most ghosts, Jack can cause cold spots and move objects, which he does when he wants to chase people away from bookshop when they are hindering the investigation \u2013 and the results are always fun to watch!<\/p>\n

If you like ghosts, cozies, and PIs this is the series for you.\u00a0 You can start with this book and if you want more while waiting for the second book, look for the previous series. The fist book in that series, The Ghost and Mrs. McClure,\u00a0<\/em>is available in print, kindle, and audible format.\u00a0 —\u00a0Cathy Akers-Jordan<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Haunted Bookshop Detective #1 This series appears new but is actually is a continuation of Coyle’s nine-book Haunted Bookshop Mystery series, published by Berkeley under the pseudonym Alice Kimberly. I’m so glad Kensington has picked up this series! Young widow Penelope Thornton-McClure and her Aunt Sadie own Buy the Books, a mystery bookshop in Quindicott, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[78,706,236,2608,1533,566,2607],"class_list":["post-7231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-cathy-akers-jordan","tag-cleo-coyle","tag-ghosts","tag-haunted-bookshop","tag-kensington-cozies","tag-private-eye","tag-the-ghost-and-the-dead-librarian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7233,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7231\/revisions\/7233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}