Book Review: The Ghost Goes to the Dogs by Cleo Coyle

A stray dog leads bookseller Penelope McClure and her gumshoe ghost on a chase for a clever killer in this brand-new entry in the Haunted Bookshop Mysteries from New York Times bestselling author Cleo Coyle. Read on for Doreen Sheridan's review!

Bookseller Penny McClure is surprised one day to hear a scratching noise outside her store: Buy The Book. She’s even more startled to realize that the sound is being made by Sparky, a dog that she knows belongs to Jane Cunningham, a good customer of hers. An anxious Sparky leads her and her teenage son Spencer out to a wooded area, where they find Jane lying unconscious. Jane’s medical emergency takes a more sinister turn when it becomes apparent that she was shot and left for dead.

Penny has no idea who would want to harm Jane, much less murder such a force for civic good in her small town of Quindicott, Rhode Island. Successful businesswoman Jane often volunteered at the local animal shelter, and was president of the admittedly contentious Paw-some Pals, one of Buy The Book’s largest reading groups. As president, she’d recently initiated a partnership with the nearby St Francis University to host a series of pet-loving events in honor of their namesake. In addition to arranging for a Main Street parade and for a day of discounted pet care from a mobile vet, she’d invited the bestselling author of the Kennel Club Mysteries to give a talk and sign books at Penny’s shop. Being shot right before the kick-off of Pet Week was likely not on Jane’s agenda.

Buy The Book’s resident ghost, the spirit of 1940s private investigator Jack Shepard, is eager to investigate. Penny is a little more hesitant:

[“W]hat if she…”

 

I swallowed, not wanting to say the words.

 

Kicks the bucket? Jack blurted. Bites the dust? Cashes in her chips? Catches the big chill?

 

“I was going to say, what if she doesn’t pull through?

 

Listen, honey, there’s no need to soft-pedal things with me. I’m not one of your small-town church ladies.

 

“Well, I don’t see any reason to be crass. I mean, given your own…situation.”

While not unappreciative of Penny’s delicacy, Jack isn’t about to let being dead hamper his sleuthing. If anything, Jane’s shooting reminds him of an odd case he investigated almost eighty years ago. The parallels are clear even though the cases are quite different from one another. While Jack had a dog basically thrust upon him with a cryptic note and a hundred dollar bill, Penny agrees to take in Sparky after hearing that the alternative is a local shelter with an unnervingly short timeline before euthanizing its charges. 

Spencer is overjoyed by this, offering to do most of the work of caring for Jane’s dog while she’s in the hospital, including twice daily walks. But when it looks increasingly as if Sparky himself might be the next target for assassination, Penny can’t help but worry that she or Spencer might get caught in the crossfire. Will Jack’s experience and her own resourcefulness be enough to keep her family from harm? Penny must race to identify and catch an attempted killer before she herself becomes the next victim.

The Ghost Goes To The Dogs was another delightful installment in a series that travels effortlessly back and forth in time with its two main characters, as Jack and Penny help each other solve mysteries in both present-day Rhode Island and post-World War II New York City. The tone skips lightly between charming cozy mystery and hardboiled noir, as here where Penny narrates an unexpected encounter in the Big Apple’s gangland past:

As the man approached us, I finally got a look at his scarred and pockmarked face. I recoiled not so much at his rough features and close-set eyes but the twisted grimace of his expression and the meanness in his gaze.

 

The silk-suited boneheads around Joey Flowers were pretty guard dogs compared to this junkyard killer, a product of back alleys, rough streets, and prison yards, whose aura of intimidation conveyed the frightening, teeth-baring evidence of what it took to survive in such places.

I adore cozy mysteries that serve up an edge, as this series does with its paranormal, noir gumshoe twist. The modern crimes are truly very modern and make for a terrific contrast with the engrossing historical details of Jack’s milieu, as our main characters switch back and forth between worlds. Having dogs feature in this latest book was a nice addition, and will hopefully increase the appeal of this engaging series to readers who have yet to discover its ample charms.

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