Book 74, 2018

[chez_jae]

These Haunts are Made for Walking by Rose Pressey

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Earlier this evening, I finished reading These Haunts are Made for Walking, which is the first installment in Rose Pressey's "Haunted Tour Guide" mystery series, featuring librarian-by-day, haunted-ghost-tour-leader by night, Riply Van Raden.

After catching her fiance cheating on her, Ripley returns to her hometown of Devil's Moon, KY, to take over the job as the head librarian. Her first day on the job, a woman is found dead in the library. What seems like a tragic accident at first soon proves to be murder. Aware of the disapproving glares she's getting from the townspeople, Ripley sets about investigating on her own, aided by the library's resident ghost, Annie. In the meantime, paranormal activity on Ripley's haunted tours seems to be picking up.

While her sideline job is going well, not all is rosy in the library. Annie's constant poking and prodding at Ripley is distracting, and Leslie, one of the assistants, seems to have taken a dislike to her. On top of all that, the new cop in town, handsome officer Brannon Landon, has been bugging Ripley for a chance to do a paranormal investigation in the library, since he heads up a team. When Ripley begins receiving threatening notes, her murder investigation turns deadly.

Although the storyline was fun and interesting, I am becoming increasingly disenchanted with Pressey's writing. She churns out several books (more like novellas) in many different verses, and her work suffers for it. I'd like to see more quality from her, and less quantity. This book, for instance, had plenty of minor editing errors. I can live with that, but it had some major errors, too. In the beginning, Ripley mentioned she'd rented an apartment either above or adjacent to a pizza place. Later, she returned home to her apartment in a renovated Victorian. Er, what? At another point, the name of the town was called Rocky Point. Huh? If I, as a casual reader, can catch these inconsistencies, why can't an editor? Pressey's books would certainly benefit from a competent editor.

Then, there was Ripley herself. How any woman can be so insipid is beyond me. She finds notes, clearly written by the killer and all but bragging about the murder, and yet Ripley chooses not to hand them to the police. The same thing with the threatening notes she began receiving. I mean, what the hell? Who DOES that? Or, doesn't do that, as the case may be? Mind boggling.

And, Ripley's ex showed up, wanting her back. He was on screen for less than a minute, then was gone again. I have no idea why that wasn't edited out. It added nothing to the narrative and was simply a distraction for Ripley and the reader. Speaking of odd appearances, when Ripley was in the library after hours, how did her friend Tammy suddenly appear in there and startle her? Tammy works for the library part-time, but I wouldn't think that would merit her having her own key.

Another thing I took umbrage with (and this is just my personal opinion) was the name 'Brannon Landon'. First and last were simply too similar sounding.

Last in my litany of complaints was the character of Leslie. I could not believe that Ripley didn't hand that little snot both her head and her walking papers on her first day at the library. Leslie was so rude and insolent towards her that I wanted to reach into my Kindle and punch the bitch in the face.

One thing that did appeal to me is that Pressey's descriptions of places in Devil's Moon reminded me of Bardstown, KY, from the old jail with a cemetery out back to the tavern right next door to it.

Favorite line: "She's so clumsy, she'd trip over a cordless phone."

In short, good idea for a story, but poor execution.