Cleo Coyle is absolutely my favorite cozy mystery writer and this novel doesn't disappoint. Fans have waited about ten years for this next addition to the Haunted Bookshop mystery series. Earlier novels in the series were written under pseudonym Alice Kimberly, but now Alice Alfonsi and her husband Marc Cerasini are using their pseudonym Cleo Coyle to write this latest one, THE GHOST AND THE BOGUS BESTSELLER. They also write the Coffeehouse Mystery series under Cleo Coyle and slipped in a little surprise for readers of both series. I loved it!

Penelope is back solving mysteries with her ghost crime fighter partner Jack. A customer comes to get the hottest novel that has hit the bookshelves and is spooked by what she saw on the new novel's back cover. She leaves upset, leaving Penelope determined to find out why, and to get the money for the book that she took with her during her rushed exit. With two customers' deaths and other bizarre happenings all surrounded by this bestseller, Penelope is left to find out what all the uproar is about, along with the help from Jack, her gumshoe ghost who haunts her bookshop. Will they get answers before it is too late?

Cleo Coyle wrote another amazing cozy mystery with THE GHOST AND THE BOGUS BESTSELLER! This book was worth the ten-year wait because they just seem to get better. As a fan of these authors, I would love to see more interaction between the Coffeehouse Mystery series and the Haunted Bookshop series down the road. Either way, I hope Coyle keeps the mysteries coming because I cannot wait for the next adventure for Penelope and Jack!

Book Summary

Penelope Thornton-McClure and her bookshop's ghost-in-residence Jack Shepard are back on a new case in this delightful paranormal mystery from New York Times bestselling author Cleo Coyle.

A big bestseller leads to small town trouble.

Bookshop owner Penelope Thornton-McClure didn't believe in ghosts, until she was haunted by the hard-boiled spirit of 1940s private investigator Jack Shepard. Now Jack is back on the job, and Pen is eternally grateful...

After an elegant new customer has a breakdown in her shop, Penelope suspects there is something bogus behind the biggest bestseller of the year. This popular potboiler is so hot that folks in her tiny Rhode Island town are dying to read it--literally. First one customer turns up dead, followed by another mysterious fatality connected to the book, which Pen discovers is more than just fiction. Now, with the help of her gumshoe ghost, Pen must solve the real-life cold case behind the bogus bestseller before the killer closes the book on her.