Book 44, 2019

[chez_jae]

The Realm of the Shadows by Mary Bowers

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Since I have so many of the "Tropical Breeze" mystery series loaded on my Kindle, I spent a good deal of time yesterday reading the second installment, which was The Realm of the Shadows. Author is Mary Bowers, and the main character is Taylor Verone, who runs the local animal shelter.

Taylor is excited to be moving her shelter, Orphans of the Storm, to the Cadbury Estate. The owner has offered her a fantastic lease agreement, which means she can live in the house and use the barn and other outbuildings to house the animals. However, while a construction crew is working on the barn, the foreman swears he saw a ghost in the loft. Work screeches to a halt, leaving Taylor at her wit's end. She decides to hire Edson Darby-Deaver, a paranormal investigator with a healthy sense of skepticism, in an effort to calm the construction crew.

Unfortunately, word travels fast in the small, coastal town of Tropical Breeze, which brings Terry Force and his paranormal reality TV cast and crew, Realm of Shadows, to the estate. Terry pulls some strings with the owner, which means that Taylor has to tolerate having a television crew trampling all over the property. She does draw the line at allowing them in the house.

Now the battle is on between the skeptic Edson and the dashing, ratings-hound Terry to see who can prove or disprove the haunting first. Things may have gone too far, however, when someone winds up dead. Taylor is beside herself, and she reluctantly calls on the goddess Bastet again for aid. When Bastet reappears in the form of a black cat, Taylor begins putting clues together, both past and present, in hopes of unraveling the mystery surrounding two deaths.

I'm enjoying these books. They aren't overly complicated; they're perfect for a light read. I appreciate that Taylor is an older woman, and I must admire her restraint in not just adopting every animal that comes through her shelter. Characters are becoming more familiar, which I always like, too.

Favorite lines:
♦ "We're treating it as death by dumbassedness."
♦ "Eating while driving will leave you with food all over your face in the morgue."

Fun and entertaining!