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On the general topic of ghosts solving murders
After writing the previous book review for the one I just finished, I figured I'd write about the other ghost-solving-mysteries books I've read lately, which are a series of cozy murder mysteries by Traci Wilton, Mrs. Morris and the Ghost and Mrs. Morris and the Witch.
I will just flat-out tell you that I loved reading these books not because they're especially good, because they aren't, but because they read exactly like an Agent Carter modern-day ghost AU in which widow!Peggy buys a house haunted by ghost!Jack. I mean, I don't think it is actually serial-numbers-filed-off Agent Carter fanfic, it's more obviously someone thinking that what The Ghost and Mrs. Muir needed was Moar Crime Solving, but ... the ghost, though. HIS NAME IS EVEN JACK, and he's handsome and flirty and lounges on things and enjoys teasing the heroine by trying to get her attention when she's in a room full of people and can't actually react to Jack popping up unexpectedly or making sarcastic comments. The heroine, meanwhile, is a stylish and slightly uptight widow who is trying to deal with all of this Sexy Ghost around the place. There's also a human cop love interest who could even function as a vague Daniel analog, although I just gotta say she has infinitely more chemistry and a much more charming friendship with the ghost.
As actual murder mysteries, these are pretty bad. The first one's not so terrible because she's solving Jack's murder, but in the second one she has no connection to the victim and no reason to keep showing up at crime scenes, and keeps doing mind-blowingly stupid things because of it. Just let the police handle it, lady. Sheesh. I don't blame not!Daniel for yelling at her about it a lot.
However, this leads to an interesting situation where part of the reason why she has so much more chemistry with Ghost Jack is because he actually enjoys solving crimes with her, while not!Daniel spends most of his time getting upset at her for showing up at crime scenes. On the one hand, this makes perfect sense because he's a cop and she's a civilian with absolutely no boundaries or common sense ... but it also leads to a dynamic where she actively tries to hide things from him and only guiltily tells him what she's been up to (and then often gets yelled at anyway), while she can't wait to run home and talk over her latest finds with Jack.
It made me stop and think about why sometimes bickery romances slam down all my buttons and sometimes they slam down my "nope" button just as hard, and I think that's actually the fundamental crux of it, though it took having both types of relationship contrasted in the same book to actually make me realize it. Not!Peggy bickers with Jack constantly. But there's also a fundamental, underlying sense that Jack really loves that idiotically curious aspect of her personality, loves solving mysteries with her, and while he hates her putting herself in danger, he doesn't try to stop her; he just backs her up. Meanwhile not!Daniel does nothing but try to stop her. And it's not really his fault, part of it is baked into the setup (he's a cop! he can't have her tramping all over his crime scenes!), but you also get the feeling that he would love it if she'd just stop being a curious busybody, whereas Jack really enjoys being a curious busybody with her even when she's annoying the hell out of him by doing it, and I think that's what makes all the difference with their respective character dynamics. It's not even so much not!Daniel trying to argue her out of doing things, because Jack does too, but when most of his interactions involve him scolding her and not!Peggy defending herself, it comes across that he simply doesn't appreciate her as a whole person. I think this is a trap that romance can easily fall into when the author is either trying to create conflict for the sake of conflict, or has set up the characters on opposite sides a little too well - it's actually going to be tough to avoid in a situation like this where you have a by-the-book cop on one side and an amateur sleuth on the other.
(But you can totally do it. White Collar managed it for several seasons, and they did it mostly by suggesting that Peter loves and appreciates Neal's loose-cannon qualities in equal measure with how much they drive him bonkers. Which is exactly what this series is failing to do with these two characters.)
Anyway, these books are not particularly good but they are very charming brain candy, and god help me, I will totally be buying book 3 when it comes out this fall. And I will continue thinking of it as an Agent Carter modern-day AU and shipping her with her ghost because they have chemistry out the wazoo.
I will just flat-out tell you that I loved reading these books not because they're especially good, because they aren't, but because they read exactly like an Agent Carter modern-day ghost AU in which widow!Peggy buys a house haunted by ghost!Jack. I mean, I don't think it is actually serial-numbers-filed-off Agent Carter fanfic, it's more obviously someone thinking that what The Ghost and Mrs. Muir needed was Moar Crime Solving, but ... the ghost, though. HIS NAME IS EVEN JACK, and he's handsome and flirty and lounges on things and enjoys teasing the heroine by trying to get her attention when she's in a room full of people and can't actually react to Jack popping up unexpectedly or making sarcastic comments. The heroine, meanwhile, is a stylish and slightly uptight widow who is trying to deal with all of this Sexy Ghost around the place. There's also a human cop love interest who could even function as a vague Daniel analog, although I just gotta say she has infinitely more chemistry and a much more charming friendship with the ghost.
As actual murder mysteries, these are pretty bad. The first one's not so terrible because she's solving Jack's murder, but in the second one she has no connection to the victim and no reason to keep showing up at crime scenes, and keeps doing mind-blowingly stupid things because of it. Just let the police handle it, lady. Sheesh. I don't blame not!Daniel for yelling at her about it a lot.
However, this leads to an interesting situation where part of the reason why she has so much more chemistry with Ghost Jack is because he actually enjoys solving crimes with her, while not!Daniel spends most of his time getting upset at her for showing up at crime scenes. On the one hand, this makes perfect sense because he's a cop and she's a civilian with absolutely no boundaries or common sense ... but it also leads to a dynamic where she actively tries to hide things from him and only guiltily tells him what she's been up to (and then often gets yelled at anyway), while she can't wait to run home and talk over her latest finds with Jack.
It made me stop and think about why sometimes bickery romances slam down all my buttons and sometimes they slam down my "nope" button just as hard, and I think that's actually the fundamental crux of it, though it took having both types of relationship contrasted in the same book to actually make me realize it. Not!Peggy bickers with Jack constantly. But there's also a fundamental, underlying sense that Jack really loves that idiotically curious aspect of her personality, loves solving mysteries with her, and while he hates her putting herself in danger, he doesn't try to stop her; he just backs her up. Meanwhile not!Daniel does nothing but try to stop her. And it's not really his fault, part of it is baked into the setup (he's a cop! he can't have her tramping all over his crime scenes!), but you also get the feeling that he would love it if she'd just stop being a curious busybody, whereas Jack really enjoys being a curious busybody with her even when she's annoying the hell out of him by doing it, and I think that's what makes all the difference with their respective character dynamics. It's not even so much not!Daniel trying to argue her out of doing things, because Jack does too, but when most of his interactions involve him scolding her and not!Peggy defending herself, it comes across that he simply doesn't appreciate her as a whole person. I think this is a trap that romance can easily fall into when the author is either trying to create conflict for the sake of conflict, or has set up the characters on opposite sides a little too well - it's actually going to be tough to avoid in a situation like this where you have a by-the-book cop on one side and an amateur sleuth on the other.
(But you can totally do it. White Collar managed it for several seasons, and they did it mostly by suggesting that Peter loves and appreciates Neal's loose-cannon qualities in equal measure with how much they drive him bonkers. Which is exactly what this series is failing to do with these two characters.)
Anyway, these books are not particularly good but they are very charming brain candy, and god help me, I will totally be buying book 3 when it comes out this fall. And I will continue thinking of it as an Agent Carter modern-day AU and shipping her with her ghost because they have chemistry out the wazoo.
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Also, I really like it when the couple seems to be digging the bickering; when they seem get some enjoyment out of it, it's fun. When the bickering seems real, like they really dislike each other, it's tedious.
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Yeah, there has to be a visible element of mutual appreciation for me, otherwise I don't understand why these people are even spending the time with one another beyond the exigencies of the plot.
it's actually going to be tough to avoid in a situation like this where you have a by-the-book cop on one side and an amateur sleuth on the other.
The Penguin Pool Murder (1932) remains one of my favorite variations.
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Welcome! I hope the greymarket link in the comments still works, and if not, that you can find a suitable replacement.
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And yeah, to me especially the "stop doing this for your saaaafety" feel on a romance ship can be a real moodkill.
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And you've coincidentally reminded me of some blithe serial-numbers-filed-off BtVS fanfic rewrites that I enjoyed a few years back -- grown-up not!Buffy married not!Angel, had a daughter, and is next-door-neighbors with grown-up divorced not!Willow. I think the author was up to novel #5 when I lost track. I wonder whether I can remember... that's right: Julie Kenner, the "Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom" series... aaaand I see on Amazon that the 5 novels I read are all there were. Oh, well. :-) Good for her, getting as many out to us as she did!
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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F7T6M3V
(Paranormal Women's Fiction has gotten big over the last 2-3 years - i.e. urban fantasy featuring over-40 heroines - and since that's basically what this series is, it looks like the author has decided to jump on the trend and write some more books. Good for her!)