Reviewer: Connie Payne
Title: Dead Bolt - 2nd in the Haunted Home Renovation Mystery series
Author: Juliet Blackwell
Publisher: Obsidian
ISBN-13: 978-0-451-23530-5
Release Date: December 2011
Genre/Sub-genre: Paranormal Mystery
Year/Setting: Present day, San Francisco area
Overall Rating: 4.0
Sexual Content Rating: None
Language (Profanity/Slang) Content Rating: None/Very Mild
Violent Content Rating: Minimal/Moderate
Juliet's Website: julietblackwell.net
It’s only been a short time since Mel Turner realized she was sensitive to spirits…ghosts. Her initial experience consisted of an annoying spirit who followed her around. This time it’s much different and way out of her ‘sensitive’ expertise.
Turner Construction is restoring the Chesire Inn. A huge, lovely late 19th century house. Strange things have been happening on the job site. Things that couldn’t simply be explained away – a shadow figure and unexplainable otherworldly things.
It’s not long before the grumpy old man (a neighbor to the Chesire Inn) approaches Mel again. He hates the noise…blah blah blah. Nothing she’s going to do about it. They are well within the requirements of the city.
Of course ‘activity’ and grumpy neighbors don’t seem to be enough for this project. Why not add murder to Mel’s list of problems? Seems only fair doesn’t it?
Mel soon wonders if there was possibly a thread of a connection between the murder, Chesire Inn, and the menacing entities.
What do you suppose Mel figures she should do? Leave it to the police? Hardly!
Digging into the past, finding the secrets of the old house, and figuring out how to rid the house of these menacing spirits. What else?
Is there a connection between the murder victim and the crazy cat lady (who was the Chesire Inn’s previous owner)? Can she rid the house of these seemingly malicious entities? Of course she’d prefer to figure it all out and live, too.
As the activity and atmosphere in the house spirals out of control and becomes increasingly dangerous, Mel knows she must step up her investigation and find the answers to all of her questions that will keep the new homeowners at peace and the specters at rest.
Easy peasy. Uh-huh. Riiiiight.
As always, Juliet has a winding, and twisting conglomerations of the paranormal, suspense, and romantic tension. You just never know what’s going to happen from page to page, what her characters are going to encounter.
The characters have a growing depth to them, slightly complex and varied in personalities yet likable. Descriptions of the century plus old house are not too detailed but are visual to the reader.
Juliet Blackwell stories are intense and light, funny and sad, and always engrossing.
Happy reading!
Connie
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