Meet Claire Hendricks, a thirty something medium who's been invited to perform a seance at Cloisters, a large country estate.

Claire is guided by the ghost of her best friend Sophie who died as a teenager and therefore remains as one as Claire matures. I am already desperate for a sequel and let out an audible groan when I realised that this book will be releasing on 4th May, so I will have to wait a little while to get more investigative shenanigans from this quirkily endearing little Mystery Inc-style found family. And presumably the book series will eventually end when Sophie's murder is solved and she can move on, but that's me guessing. Before she moves on, her ghost asks Claire and Sophie to solve the murder of a ghost that WAS murdered on the estate. And with the help of the only obviously not-guilty members of their host family—sexy ex-policeman Sebastian and far-too-cool non-binary teen Alex—they launch an investigation into which of last year's guests never escaped the manor's grounds.Picked this up being a fan of Alice Bell from Rock, Paper, Shotgun so perhaps a little bias but really enjoyed everything about this story. When she is invited to an old university friend's country pile to provide entertainment for a family party, her best friend Sophie tags along.

I also liked the set-up: it's not really a spoiler to say that the protagonist genuinely can speak to ghosts, but I still got caught out by the first twist early in the story and had to go back and read from the beginning again to see how it had been done. Alice Bell grew up in South West England, in the sort of middle-of-nowhere where teenagers spend their weekends drinking Smirnoff Ice in a field that also has at least one horse in it. Except that at the party they find an unquiet ghost and set out to discover what happened with the two least unbearable members of the family to help them (neither of them are Claire’s uni mate) despite some scepticism. When Claire is hired to be the entertainment by an old ‘friend’ from University at a family gathering at their country pile, The Cloisters, she can’t afford to refuse. Bash grudgingly follows along with Alex’s cool, collected approach to everything as their passion for the inquiry spreads.Claire's only real experience solving mysteries is watching a whole lot of a show that sounds like Criminal Minds, so when her latest seance gig embroils her in an unofficial investigation to find out both who the ghost she saw is, and who murdered them, she and Sophie set about trying to solve the case with middling to nonexistent competence, and make some friends along the way. Invited to provide ‘entertainment’ at the country house of an old friend it soon becomes clear that something is amiss.

I did try and struggle on with it but by chapter 16 I just skipped to the penultimate chapter to find out who done it. Given her obsession with crime shows—not to mention Sophie's ability to walk through walls—Claire decides they're the best people to solve the case. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.Yes, it lost its way a little in the middle but overall it was a nice little paranormal mystery with a humorous edge. They feel compelled to investigate as the ghost of the victim is in a sorry way and needs to be laid to rest properly. But if this is the start of a series (and I hope it is) they’re minor quibbles that can be ironed out in the sequel. A funny, distinctive, constantly clever genre-bending supernatural crime novel' - Bookseller You may also be interested in.