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A NEW LEASE ON DEATH is as clever as it is spooky: a supernatural murder mystery told, collaboratively, by Cordelia and Ruby, who share a run-down apartment in a shabby neighborhood in Boston. Each considers herself to be the occupant of apartment 4G, but each has a distinctly different connection to the premises: Ruby is the current resident, who got a great deal on the fully furnished apartment after the previous tenant was found dead in the bathtub. Cordelia is the ghost of the dead tenant, who still thinks of 4G as home, and still thinks of Jake Mcintyre, the murder victim, as her neighbor from across the hall.
When she encounters Jake, shot to death on the pavement in front of the building, she is able to see both his dead body, and his confused, newly transmigrated spirit. Her ability to do so relies, to a great extent, on Cordelia's willingness to believe in her own afterlife, and that of others. She explains, articulately, that a dead person's ability to experience the mortal world relies upon her belief in conventions of time and space that no longer affect her: "I was standing on the sidewalk in front of a dilapidated apartment building in Boston because I believed I was … If I stopped believing that, even for a split second, then I would sink into the pavement like it was quicksand." Poor Jake, unfortunately, is (was?) a beer- drinking, blue-collar bro, incapable of acknowledging anything that isn't earthbound. They have a brief encounter in which he recognizes his deceased neighbor, who feels "obligated to help him, one dead person to another," but when he realizes that both of them are ghosts, he says, "That can't be true. I don't believe in ghosts," and vanishes – leaving only a lifeless, shoeless corpse, clad in flannel pj pants, fuzzy socks, and a Bruins hoodie, sporting a big bullet hole in the forehead.
Ruby, luckily, is more open-minded: "Ever since I could remember,” she says, “I've wanted to believe in ghosts." Although she can't actually hear what Cordelia says to her (except once or twice when she's really, really drunk – apparently extreme intoxication assists the living in overcoming the inhibitions that prevent us from hearing the voices of the dead,) the two manage to find ways to communicate, which are the basis for much of the story's sly humor. It turns out that the biggest obstacle to understanding each other is not the fact that one is living and one is dead, but rather that Cordelia is (was?) a bookish, introverted Millennial and Ruby is a bright-eyed, cheerful Gen Z. The former can see things that the latter cannot ("Dark, light, it made no difference to me anymore … I no longer needed light to see. Pretty convenient, if you ask me"), but Cordelia is limited by the effect that she has on all forms of electronics. When she gets too close, fuses blow, light bulbs burn out, and computers crash spectacularly. "I'd only been dead a short time," she laments, "and I already missed the internet." Ruby, unemployed but optimistic, decides to devote her spare time and goofy intelligence to helping her spectral roommate figure out what happened to Jake.
The events that follow are entertaining, if maybe a bit derivative: Cordelia's relationship to solid matter, although interesting and consistently developed, owes more than a little to the 1990 film Ghost. Additionally, the local color - descriptions of the building, the neighborhood, and the supporting characters – owe more than a little to every film you've ever seen about Boston; of course all of the victim's drinking buddies "ended their name with a 'y' or an 'ie'”, and of course Markie, Scotty, Bobby, and all the usual suspects show up at an alcohol-fueled Irish wake, held at a neighborhood dive bar presided over by a bartender named "Sean something-or-other."
Still, it's fun to watch the mismatched sleuths develop an odd, protective fondness for one another, which enables them to find the killer and obtain justice for Jake. Along the way, there are also intriguing hints at Cordelia's backstory, which is apparently more complex and disturbing than the novel lets on. The last thing Cordelia's weary spirit (yes, ghosts can get tired, too) hears, as she drifts into an exhausted state of vague, disembodied unconsciousness, is Ruby's voice, pondering the unexplained circumstances of Cordelia's demise. It's a neat set-up for an entirely welcome sequel.
§ Mary-Jane Oltarzewski is an Assistant Teaching Professor with the Rutgers University Writing Program. In her spare time, she enjoys coffee crawls, listening to jazz and show tunes, and spending time in the Catskills with her husband, and a cat who bears a strong resemblance to the Reviewing the Evidence mascot.
Reviewed by Mary-Jane Oltarzewski, October 2024
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