Phantoms and Felonies

March 1, 2021
Yet another fundraiser ends in murder most foul in the second installment of Ness' Haunted Mansion series. Upon her death, Gladys Donovan left Ohio's Portage Path Women's Club $100,000 to renovate their new home, the Dennison mansion. Though her gesture was generous, it wasn't nearly enough. So PPWC business manager Avery Morgan has arranged a staging of hot-tempered anger management counselor Fabian LaGrande's play, Death at the Crimson Dahlia, to raise some more money. What the event mainly raises is hackles, tempers, and the risk of arrest after PPWC stalwart Valentina Hanover's husband, Bob, a wealthy and indulgent banker, is discovered stabbed to death with Avery's unexpectedly visiting aunt, medium Rosemary Walsh, bending over his corpse. Even though Valentina was clearly crazy about Bob, Sgt. Oz Alterman, Avery's not-quite-boyfriend, puts her together with Rosemary at the top of his suspect list, where they're soon displaced by Toby Hanover, Bob's first wife, who attended the soiree wearing exactly the same dress as Valentina, and Malva Richards, a server who obligingly confesses to the murder. Surprisingly, Avery gets precious little help from Clemmie Bow, the salty spirit of a murdered flapper who's taken up residence in the place. Instead, the most helpful apparition is that of Bob himself, conjured in a seance very shortly before Avery suddenly realizes who the guilty party is. A brightly written mystery that's creakier than the haunted Dennison mansion and gives its resident ghost all too little to do.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.