Book 74, 2018

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. ( Here be bitching )

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.