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Book 7, 2016
Jan. 17th, 2016 01:48 pmYesterday, I started reading A Ghoul's Guide to Love and Murder, and I finished it today. It's the tenth installment in author Victoria Laurie's "Ghost Hunter" mystery series. Unfortunately, it's also the last installment. Color me disappointed.
MJ and Heath have just returned from a well-deserved vacation, where Heath proposed, MJ accepted, and they got married. MJ wants to keep it a secret, because her BFF Gilley is planning his own wedding, and he will be outraged to be upstaged. The Ghoul Getters crew has secured a movie deal, and they're all flush with money.
Before the movie's premiere, there is an exhibit at a local museum to showcase some of the gear used by the ghost hunters. When MJ discovers that Gilley has loaned a dangerous, possessed dagger to the exhibit, she and Heath are frantic to get it back. Before they can recover it, the dagger is stolen, and someone is murdered. Now it's up to the Ghoul Getters and a skeptical cop to track down the dagger before anyone else gets killed. However, MJ and Heath must first battle several of the supernatural baddies they shut down in previous cases. Complicating matters is the fact that MJ has just learned she's pregnant.
I was underwhelmed. I love this series, and I freely admit that part of my pique is due to being disappointed that this was the end. However, I felt the author was trying to cobble things together in a hurry. I wasn't "present" for the proposal/marriage, and each of the encounters with the demonic spooks seemed forced and rushed. Even the climactic scene wasn't as scary and intense as other books in the series have been. Also, I have to say that at times throughout this series, I've been annoyed with the character of Gilley. He's a selfish twat, and his antics at the first part of this book just made me want to punch him in the face. He did redeem himself, but I was less than impressed.
Favorite line: ...I was grouchy and hungry enough to shiv an old lady for a doughnut.
In short, the book was just "okay", and I'm sad that the series is ending. In addition, I felt that the author was doing a lot of unnecessary plugging of her other series ("Abby Cooper, Psychic Eye").
If I could give this a 3 1/2, I would. I'll give a nod to the series as a whole and give it four:
♦♦♦♦
MJ and Heath have just returned from a well-deserved vacation, where Heath proposed, MJ accepted, and they got married. MJ wants to keep it a secret, because her BFF Gilley is planning his own wedding, and he will be outraged to be upstaged. The Ghoul Getters crew has secured a movie deal, and they're all flush with money.
Before the movie's premiere, there is an exhibit at a local museum to showcase some of the gear used by the ghost hunters. When MJ discovers that Gilley has loaned a dangerous, possessed dagger to the exhibit, she and Heath are frantic to get it back. Before they can recover it, the dagger is stolen, and someone is murdered. Now it's up to the Ghoul Getters and a skeptical cop to track down the dagger before anyone else gets killed. However, MJ and Heath must first battle several of the supernatural baddies they shut down in previous cases. Complicating matters is the fact that MJ has just learned she's pregnant.
I was underwhelmed. I love this series, and I freely admit that part of my pique is due to being disappointed that this was the end. However, I felt the author was trying to cobble things together in a hurry. I wasn't "present" for the proposal/marriage, and each of the encounters with the demonic spooks seemed forced and rushed. Even the climactic scene wasn't as scary and intense as other books in the series have been. Also, I have to say that at times throughout this series, I've been annoyed with the character of Gilley. He's a selfish twat, and his antics at the first part of this book just made me want to punch him in the face. He did redeem himself, but I was less than impressed.
Favorite line: ...I was grouchy and hungry enough to shiv an old lady for a doughnut.
In short, the book was just "okay", and I'm sad that the series is ending. In addition, I felt that the author was doing a lot of unnecessary plugging of her other series ("Abby Cooper, Psychic Eye").
If I could give this a 3 1/2, I would. I'll give a nod to the series as a whole and give it four:
♦♦♦♦
