Book (not) Bingo #22
The Ghosthunter Next Door by Danielle Garrett
The first rule of being a ghost whisperer: Don’t tell anyone.
Seriously. Don’t.
Sure, it might sound harmless. A fun party trick, even. I assure you, it’s not.
How do I know? Well, let’s just say that I’ve had a lot of experience with this sort of thing, and nine times out of ten, it turns into an all-consuming disaster. Being plagued by needy ghosts twenty-four/seven is one thing; being harassed by a horde of curious-or worse, grieving-flesh-and-blood people is an entirely different circus. I mean really, who wants to hold an impromptu séance in the middle of the cereal aisle? Not me, and the manager of the grocery store probably isn’t too crazy about the idea, either.
So, that’s it. If you’re a ghost whisperer, just keep your mouth shut and act normal. Ghosts? What ghosts?
Now, if only I would start listening to my own advice…
Chalk this one up to my effort to find a few hours of mindless entertainment last week when I was stressed out. The book popped up on my Kindle “daily deals” for about a dollar. I didn’t feel like sifting through my substantial “unread” folder looking for something I might like, and I decided anything was better than sitting around thinking about politics. Besides which, a quick check on Amazon informed me that Danielle Garrett has self-published an incredibly long list of books, most of them quite inexpensive. If enjoyed her writing, I could probably loose myself for months without spending triple digits.
All of the author’s work seems to fall into the category “paranormal cozy mystery with cats.” I like cozy mysteries, I like some flavors of paranormal, and I like cats … so it seemed worth a shot. And, honestly, this book was okay. The writing was … not great literature, but not bad from a technical sense. I’ve paid for far worse writing. The characters, the dialogue, and the plot were all okay. There was some humor and a decent mystery.
Faint praise, right? Maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood, but “okay” is the best I can say about the book. It did entertain me for a few hours, but I never really got into the idea of a small town filled with ghosts and a resident ghost-whisperer, even if one of the ghosts was a snarky cat.
Still, as I mentioned, the author’s books are inexpensive and the writing wasn’t bad. While I’m not interested in continuing this series, I might try the first book in one of her other series.