Cozy Ghost Fiction

Fresh off my Voodoo-tastic vacation to New Orleans, I find myself presented with the first test of my newly discovered magic. There's been a murder in the neighboring town of Pine Shoals and the victim has decided she's not cut out for the spectral life and needs a gentle push into the Otherworld.

Alison and her resident gumshoe ghost are on their next case when the deceased Scott MacFarlane floats in worried that he accidentally killed a prominent local woman. Turns out she's still alive...that is, of course, until she's murdered - in Alison's house. Now, between the demands of her guests and the arrival of a reality television crew, Alison must find the killer before she sees reality from the other side.

Melanie West is getting her life back on track after a messy divorce when her grandmother, Liza Harris, asks her to join her in opening a bed-and-breakfast inn. Together, Liza and Melanie purchase a purportedly haunted mansion on the Oregon coast and jump right into clearing out the cobwebs. But while attempting to remove wallpaper in an upstairs bedroom, the new B&B owners stumble upon a very real skeleton in their closet.

A hotshot real estate developer arrives in Sully's Landing, touting his plans to build a tacky amusement arcade smack dab in the middle of the tasteful cliffside town. No one in Sully's Landing can stand the gaudy developer, but it's still a shock when he ends up murdered. It's even more shocking when Liza's friend Doug emerges as the chief suspect. Melanie and Liza put on their sleuthing caps yet again and set out to clear Doug's name.

Guesthouse owner, single mother, and reluctant ghost whisperer Alison Kerby is about to sit down to movie night with her family and friends when she's struck speechless. Floating before her is the ghost of her musical idol, 1960s English rock star Vance McTiernan. He's in desperate need of help from Alison and her resident ghostly gumshoe, Paul Harrison.

With the arrival of six senior reading group members at the Merry Ghost Inn, the long-awaited grand opening week has finally begun for Melanie West and her grandmother Liza. All is well with the Oregon coast-side B&B until Melanie's dog, Max, finds the dead body of one of their guests.

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 10, it turns into an all-consuming disaster.

Scarlet Sanderson isn't a paranormal being per se, but she's no stranger to things that go bump in the night. She's had the ability to see and speak with ghosts since she was eight years old. Whether it's a gift or a curse is still up for debate. She moved to the picturesque town of Beechwood Harbor to open a flower shop and start a new life after years of being a nomad. What she didn't expect to find was a town filled with witches, vampires, shape-shifters, and ghosts. So, so many ghosts.

The Movie Town Theater is holding its first ever Film Noir Festival, with Pen handling book sales for the guest speakers, including screen actress Hedda Geist. The legendary femme fatale has been out of the spotlight for decades. Unfortunately, the moment she steps back into it, she's nearly killed. Then other guests start to die, and Penelope wants to know why her little town's Film Noir weekend has taken a truly dark turn.

Bopped on the head from a falling plastic Santa, local undertaker Emma Lee Raines is told she's suffering from "funeral trauma." It's trauma all right, because the not-so-dearly departed keep talking to her. Take Ruthie Sue Payne - innkeeper, gossip queen, and arch-nemesis of Emma Lee's granny - she's adamant that she didn't just fall down those stairs. She was pushed. Ruthie has no idea who wanted her pushing up daisies, but she can't cross over until the matter is laid to eternal rest. Emma Lee's high-school crush, Sheriff Jack Henry Ross, isn't ready to rule out foul play.

Pen has just received an extremely rare collection of Edgar Allan Poe's complete works. Rumor has it a secret code, trapped within the books' leather-bound pages leads, to buried treasure. Well, it looks like they got the buried part right because, as Pen sells off the valuable volumes, everyone who buys - dies. Once these books go missing from their owners' cold hands, Pen will need resident ghost and hard-boiled P.I. Jack Shepard to help crack the case. The police are skeptical that the deaths involved foul play - so it's up to them to unravel these shocking endings.

Young widow Penelope Thornton-McClure and her old Aunt Sadie are making ends meet by managing a mystery book shop - a quaint Rhode Island landmark rumored to be haunted. Pen may not believe in ghosts, but she does believe in good publicity - like nabbing Timothy Brennan for a book signing. But soon after the bestselling thriller writer reveals a secret about the store's link to a 1940s murder, he keels over dead - and right in the middle of the store's new community events space. Who gives Mrs. McClure the first clue that it was murder?

Newly divorced Alison Kerby wants a second chance for herself and her nine-year-old daughter. She's returned to her hometown on the Jersey Shore to transform a Victorian fixer-upper into a charming-and profitable guest house. One small problem: the house is haunted, and the two ghosts insist Alison must find out who killed them.

In winter, the Haunted Library is a refuge for homeless townspeople. When a group purchases a vacant house to establish a daytime haven for the homeless, Carrie offers the library as a meeting place for the Haven House committee, but quickly learns that it may be used for illegal activities. As the new Sunshine Delegate, Carrie heads to the hospital to visit her colleague, Dorothy, who had fallen outside the local supermarket. She tells Carrie that her husband tried to kill her - and that he murdered her Aunt Evelyn, the library's resident ghost, six years earlier.

The one rule bookshop owner and widow Penelope Thornton-McClure has given ghostly, hard-boiled PI Jack Shepard is to not haunt the customers. But when the hot, young author Angel Stark arrives at the store to promote her latest true-crime novel, Jack can hardly contain himself. Angel's book is an unsolved mystery about a debutante found strangled to death, and it's filled with juicy details that point a finger at a number of people in the deb's high-society circle. But when the author winds up dead, too - in precisely the same way - Pen is fast on the case...which means Jack is, too.

Scarlet's spooky adventures continue in Big Ghosts Don't Cry, Book 4 of the Beechwood Harbor Ghost Mystery series.

Three years ago in a large Victorian house on the Jersey Shore in the town of Harbor Haven, fledgling private investigator Paul and his client, Maxie Malone, were murdered. Since then, recent divorcée and reluctant ghost whisperer Alison Kerby and her 10-year-old daughter, Melissa, have moved in and converted the place to a guesthouse, where Maxie and Paul are now checked in for an eternity and ready to solve any case that comes their way - or at least spook the guests (who love it). Alison’s got a lot on her plate at the moment, however, so when Paul discovers the 300-year-old ghost of a small boy in the house, he decides not to involve her in the case.

Vacation goals... I have them. Real life is not cooperating. I don't require poolside margaritas under a fancy cabana to have a good time. All I wanted was 10 ghost-free days to enjoy sightseeing New Orleans with my boyfriend, to admire art galleries, listen to live music, and eat as many beignets as I can before my pants stop buttoning. I might as well have asked Santa for a unicorn.

After 20-plus years in the land of the not-so-living, I didn't think a ghost could surprise me. Consider that winning streak over. While looking for the perfect piece of Seattle real estate, leave it to me to find the world's first ghost detective. Yeah, you heard that right. A ghost detective. The Supernatural Protection Agency has written her off as the ghost who cries murder, but this time she swears she's onto something big. Something real. Like a moth to a bonfire, I dive in headfirst, just in time for the trouble she's been following to take a U-turn.

Boxed set of the complete "Gwen's Ghosts" series—a Paranormal Women's Fiction collection: DANCE WITH THE DEAD (Book #1) From the age of eight, I've seen ghosts, with Petra Shearwater being my constant companion for thirty-four years. As a mystery novelist in need of a fresh start after a lackluster fifteen-year relationship, I return to Morley-on-Avon, the English town that fascinated me. At forty-two, I seek a new beginning, a new book, and possibly new love, particularly with the local blacksmith, Leo. However, the cottage I move into, Bluebells, holds a haunting secret—Victoria ...