Book Review: Haunting and Homicide

Haunting and Homicide

Haunting and Homicide is a fun paranormal mystery with an original hook, a great setting, and likable characters.

• Series: A Ghost Tour Mystery (Book One)

• Written by: Ava Burke

• Published by: Crooked Lane Books

• Publication date: January 21, 2025

• Mystery type: Paranormal cozy mystery

Tallulah "Lou" Thatcher can see dead people. This is quite helpful in New Orleans, Louisiana where she hosts ghost tours in the historic Garden District. When a rival tour guide Lou has been feuding with is found murdered with a dagger from Lou's shop, she becomes the primary suspect. Now it's up to her (and her ghostly sidekicks) to solve the mystery before she ends up dead herself.

Haunting and Homicide was a really fun read. The ghost tour operator hook is original, and the New Orleans setting is the perfect location for a plot centered around a medium, ghosts, and ghost tours.

Lou has ghost friends and non-ghost friends who help her run her ghost tour and souvenir shop. The ghost friends and Lou's ability to speak with ghosts make her tours above average, resulting in enough viral videos to make a rival tour guide (Adam) jealous. Adam and Lou do not get along. So when Lou finds Adam's body with a dagger from her shop planted firmly in his back, she ends up looking quite guilty.

Lou can see Adam, and Adam knows it. He wants her to help find his killer, but he doesn't make it easy. He offers up very little in the way of clues and screams in Lou's face every time she sees him. This makes the mystery difficult to solve and quite a puzzler for Lou and the reader. However, the clues are there so that the reader can solve the mystery along with the sleuth.

Ava Burke, the author of the story, is a good writer. Lou is strong character and a competent sleuth. It is easy to root for her. Well-drawn supporting characters, including Lou's lovable Nan, ghost buddy Kenneth, and an adorable beagle pup, make the book extra charming.

Overall, Haunting and Homicide was a good read and a nice start to a new paranormal, cozy mystery series. I would definitely read this again and continue on with the series.

Review disclosure: Cozy Crime Reads received an advanced reader copy of Haunting and Homicide from Net Galley and Crooked Lane Books. This did not influence the review.

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