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MERRY, MERRY GHOST
by Carolyn Hart
William Morrow, October 2009
288 pages
$15.99
ISBN: 0060874376


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

One snowy, cold evening a week before Christmas, an adorable 4-year-old orphan is left at the home of a dying woman, with a birth certificate clutched in his little hand and a bunch of military medals in his pocket. Adelaide, Oklahoma, is the sort of small town where pretty nearly everybody knows the family business of everybody else, and especially when the family in question is the Pritchards - they're pretty much "it" for High Society in Adelaide. And everyone knows quite well that Susan Pritchard Ryan's only son left home at 18 after a family tragedy and nothing had been heard of him until a couple of years ago when his body was sent home for burial. This little boy might be her grandson, and coming at Christmas too, how wonderful! But it might just be a scam - Susan is likely to die within six months from congestive heart failure, and she's got pots of money lots of folks would like to lay claim to, especially the distant family members mentioned in her current will.

A sentimental, very sweet holiday mystery, right? I was afraid so, as excessive sentimentality starts annoying me after a while, and this appeared to be filled with pretty nearly everything a classic holiday melodrama requires. And that's not even including the ghost. For this is, first and foremost, a supernatural mystery. I had thought Hart might do a variation on A CHRISTMAS CAROL - there's plenty of happy/sad rememberings of past events, future fears and troubles, and present encouragings to ‛enjoy the moment!' - but this ghost is not at all any sort of specter. Rather, she's a real detective, if an incorporeal one.

Bailey Ruth has been sent from Heaven to ensure the safety and, if possible, the happiness of that little boy, Keith Flynn. There's a department that sends emissaries to help earthbound folks who are in need and she is dispatched to watch over Keith but strongly adjured to keep to the Rules, which she has managed to thoroughly flout while on her last assignment to Adelaide, her home town, where she lived for most of her life. Bailey loves and remembers many people there, and my, oh, my, does she ever love Christmas time! When Susan and Keith are confirmed to be related and Susan even seems to be improving health-wise (she's a very happy woman now she has Keith), Bailey is feeling rather good about it all and almost ready to go back to Heaven. Staying one more night to watch a town-wide celebration, she finds that Susan has apparently died in her sleep. But something isn't right, especially the fact that Susan had announced to all her joy in finding Keith and her intention to sign a new will the next morning, a will that would have left nearly all of her $10 million estate to him. (No, I'm not giving much of the plot away; this is mostly set-up business for the murder, and most of it is on the dustjacket).

Although set at the holiday season and with all the trappings intact, it's mainly a ‛big house mystery', a tale of inheritance gone bad and greedy relatives out to get theirs, and the ghost detective is beautifully written and a very enjoyable character to get to know. Yes, there are a lot of almost sticky-sweet spots, but somehow the wry wit and the wonderful depictions of the town, the people and their motives (many of them quite nasty), make this a thoroughly good, middle-of-the-road cosy. And the sentimentality is perfectly balanced with Bailey's sometimes acid tongue and tendency to speak - and act - without thinking. She's still on probation from her last adventure, but doesn't let that get in the way of doing her best to make things right for Keith.

If you love cosies and prefer gentle VIP-family-centric murder mysteries, you will likely enjoy this very much, especially if you want something to read over the holidays, something with a satisfactory ending and, ultimately, a loving sensibility and a sense of joy. But you'll need to believe in or at least be able to tolerate the guardians-are-watching-over-us element, which is very thoughtfully, and funnily done, but is pretty nearly all-pervasive - Bailey is the narrator and her unusual abilities allow her to manipulate things shamelessly. Essentially a small town story, with nearly-cute characters, in a setting that doesn't quite seem real, it's pretty much a fantasy all around: the town is idealized, the good guys are mostly sweethearts, the kid is adorable, Bailey Ruth is wonderful. I'd ought to have been gritting my teeth. Needless to say, I was very surprised to find that it all worked.

Carolyn Hart has given us a confident, comfortable cosy read that is also very funny, and extremely well-plotted in the classic manner. Not as sweet as some of her Death On Demand stories have become (Bailey can be very tart at times), and for me that's a big plus, keeping the balance from sliding too far up the sweet-and-cute scale. A good holiday bet.

Reviewed by Abbey Hamilton, December 2009

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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