The Ghost and the Haunted Portrait

Haunted Bookshop Mystery Series, Book 7

By: Cleo Coyle

Narrated by: Traci Odom

Bookshop owner Penelope Thornton-McClure and her gumshoe ghost team up to solve the stunning mystery at the heart of a so-called "madwoman's" self-portrait in this all-new installment from New York Times best-selling author Cleo Coyle.

While gathering a collection of vintage book cover paintings for a special event in her quaint Rhode Island bookshop, Penelope discovers a spooky portrait of a beautiful woman, one who supposedly went mad, according to town gossip. Seymour, the local mailman, falls in love with the haunting image and buys the picture, refusing to part with it, even as fatal accidents befall those around it. Is the canvas cursed? Or is something more sinister at work?

For answers, Pen turns to an otherworldly source: Jack Shepard, PI. Back in the 1940s, Jack cracked a case of a killer cover artist, and (to Pen's relief) his spirit is willing to help her solve this mystery, even if he and his license did expire decades ago.

©2021 Alice Alfonsi and Marc Cerasini (P)2021 Tantor

Always a terrific whodunit!!

As a fan of all works by Cleo Coyle, this may be the best Haunted Bookshop Mystery yet!

Jack is back.. and in fine form.

The performance by Traci Odom is wonderful. She nailed the characters' voices and personalities!

Pretty good

The Ghost and the Haunted Portrait is ok but not as good as the previous books. Jack and Penelope are a great team and the mystery is entertaining but it seems to lack something. Overall it's an enjoyable cozy mystery and I look forward to the next one.

Good easy listening

This series is an easy listening for driving and still staying on task! They way it is written is wonderful

I miss Caroline Shaffer’s narration

This book lost the magic of the previous books in this series. There was absolutely no chemistry between the ghost Jack & Penny. I won’t be listening to any future books in this series with narration by Traci Odom. A real disappointment after really looking forward to this book.

So sad I paid for this book.

I'm assuming when the publisher changed, they changed narrators. I wish I had just read a paper copy of this. The whole experience was ruined. I could barely tell the characters apart without the author actually saying who was talking. The narrator made the characters, especially Mrs. McClure sound a bit annoyed the whole time. It changed the experience so much. It's not worth listening to. I wish I had read the reviews before I bought it. A very big disappoint, when you only get one free book a month.

So satisfying!

Another great Cleo coil read! Love this author! Her talent and her storytelling is so compelling. Not sure how I feel about the new narrator. I’ve come to associate Penny with the previous narrator, Caroline Shaffer.

It was ok.

I think I really just miss Caroline Shaffer & Traber Burns. It was not my favorite of the series but it wasn’t bad either. If there is another one to follow maybe we can get the original narrators.

Awesome

Love cozy mysteries. The audible was well read. Would recommend this to all those cozy mystery lovers. 5 stars because it was so well done.

Story Was Good But Like Everyone Else....

The story was pretty good but like everyone else, I miss the old narrators. It was very difficult to go from the other books to this one and have it hold my interest. You have to learn new narrators and how they read the voices of the characters. It just took a while to get used to. Also, the story was good but the relationship between Pen and Jack seems different. I know there was a big lapse between the first five novels and these last two. Was a bit disappointed but love the series as a whole so far.

Great Story, but miss original narrators

Overall, this was a great story, but didn’t like the narration. Had I not been a fan of the series, the change in narrator wouldn’t been so bad. While Ms. Odom did a good job with the extraneous characters, she did a disservice to what we’ve come to expect from Jack, Penelope, Brainer, Seymour and especially Aunt Sadie. Very disappointed that the change was made. Please bring back original narrators for future reads.