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Haunted House Murder by Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis and Barbara Ross Review

Hello Everyone :)


I hope you're all doing well, and I want to thank you all for joining me for another book review here on The Preppy Book Princess.


Today's review is probably a little out of character for a January read, but it was a fun read nonetheless, and I knew I needed to share a quick review of it with you all.


Haunted House Murder by Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis and Barbara Ross:




Source: Library

Publisher: Kensington 

Publication Date: August 27th, 2019

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Series: Lucy Stone/Haley Powell Food and Cocktails/Maine Clambake


Synopsis:

Tricks and treats keep the Halloween spirit alive in coastal Maine. But this year the haunted house theme is getting carried a little too far . . .

HAUNTED HOUSE MURDER by LESLIE MEIER
Newcomers to Tinker's Cove, Ty and Heather Moon have moved into a dilapidated house reputed to be a haven for ghosts. Now strange noises and flickering lights erupt from the house at all hours and neighborly relations are on edge. And when a local boy goes missing near the house, it's up to Lucy Stone to unravel the mystery of the eccentric couple and their increasingly frightful behavior.

DEATH BY HAUNTED HOUSE by LEE HOLLIS
For the past two years, the house next door to Hayley Powell has sat abandoned after the owner died under mysterious circumstances. The Salinger family has recently taken possession of the property, but the realtor behind the deal has vanished--after a very public and angry argument with Damien Salinger. If Bar Harbor's newest neighbors are murderers, Hayley will haunt them until they confess.

HALLOWED OUT by BARBARA ROSS
With its history of hauntings and ghost sightings, Busman's Harbor is the perfect setting for Halloween festivities. But when a reenactment of a Prohibition-era gangster's murder ends with a literal bang and a dead actor from New Jersey, Julia Snowden must identify a killer before she ends up sleeping with the fishes.

There's nothing like home sweet home in this trio of Halloween tales . .



(synopsis from goodreads)




My Review:

Haunted House Murder is a fun, Halloween themed collection of novellas by three well known voices in the cozy mystery market. I personally picked this one up as I'm reading Barbara Ross' entire Maine Clambake series, but I ended up actually enjoying all three spooky cozy mysteries.

The first story, Haunted House Murder, is Leslie Meier's contribution, and is one of her Lucy Stone stories. This was personally the series I'm the most unfamiliar with, as I've only read one other novella from this series. However, that didn't hinder my enjoyment of the story, and I loved the way it was centered around a spooky old house in the city, and the eccentric couple that have recently moved in the believed haunted house. This one was truly a fun loving mystery with an interesting twist at the end, and ended up being an enjoyable tale from start to finish.

Lee Hollis' Death By Haunted House is the second story featured, and was personally my least favorite. I have read a few other titles in the Haley Powell Food and Cocktails Mstery series, so I was a bit more familiar with the characters and such. However, I wasn't prepared for this one to be set in the past from the other books in said series, and I personally found Haley's ex husband Danny to be completely obnoxious, to the point that it hindered my enjoyment of the rest of the story. This was one was much creepier than the first book in the series, and the mystery was well laid out, however, Danny's nonsense grated on my nerves, and I ended up questioning why Haley was possibly going along with anything he believed in the first place.

Lastly, was Barbara Ross' entertaining contribution, Hallowed Out. This was definitely my favorite, and was the strongest addition in my personal opinion. I loved getting another visit to my favorite family from Busman's Harbor, Maine, and I thought the set up of this one was brilliant. I loved how it focuses around a trolley tour highlighting the ghostly legends throughout the town, and the way that Julia finds herself once again in the midst of the chaos of a murder mystery. I applaud Barbara Ross for the ability to write such a compelling mystery within a novella word count, and I highly enjoyed this one.

I definitely recommend picking this collection up as it's a fun, not so scary collection of Halloween cozy mysteries that would be perfect for some light hearted fall reading. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection, and I hope that readers will see more collections of novellas from these three authors in the future.

Final Rating 4/5

Thanks so much for reading guys! Have a great rest of your day.

This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photo does not belong to me and all rights to the respective owners. 

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