Merry, Merry Ghost

Listeners who may have wondered what ever happened to the angel Clarence Oddbody after IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE will soon fall under the sway of Bailey Ruth Raeburn, a newish member of Heaven's Department of Good Intentions. In this second book of her adventures she is sent to earth to protect a 4-year-old, solve a murder, and save Christmas. Narrator Ann Marie Lee has a jolly good time interpreting this fey spirit, portraying her joyous golden heart as well as her delight in the great clothes she gets to wear and her confidence in her own abilities (despite the many rules she manages to break). Sweet without being cloying, Lee deftly conveys Hart's delightful premise with such good cheer that listeners will be sorry when the story ends. D.G. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

August 10, 2009
Introduced in Agatha-winner Hart's Ghost at Work
(2008), the late Bailey Ruth Raeburn returns to earth on a heavenly mission to help a four-year-old orphan in this delightful sequel. Susan Flynn, the matriarch of one of the leading families of Adelaide, Okla., who's dying from congestive heart failure, discovers she has a grandson after Keith, the child of Susan's soldier son killed in Iraq, shows up at her door one day not long before Christmas. Susan's decision to change her will to leave her estate to Keith causes one of her many greedy relatives to ignore the message of the Christmas season. When murder and mayhem ensue, Hart's ghostly detective gets on the track of a clever killer. Bailey Ruth's pleasure in her earthly wardrobe, her keen observations of the other characters and her unorthodox but expert sleuthing will engage readers from start to finish. Hart is also the author of the Death on Demand series (Dare to Die
, etc.).