Book Review: The Ghost and Mrs. McClure

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

The Ghost and Mrs. McClure     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Alice Kimberly
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Supernatural
Series: Haunted Bookshop # 1
Berkley, Feb 2004, $5.99, 272 pp.

After her husband died, Penelope Thornton-McClure’s in-laws wanted to keep her under their thumb so they can raise Calvin’s son in the manner that is expected of their brood. When Pen’s Aunt Sadie informs her that she’s closing her bookstore in Quindicott, Rhode Island, her niece uses the insurance money to escape from her golden cage and invest in the bookstore.

After a thorough remodeling, Pen persuades famous mystery writer Timothy Brennan to do a book signing in their store on the first stop of his tour. His series is based on a hardboiled private detective Jack Shepard who mysteriously disappeared in 1949, but is now haunting the bookstore that Pen owns because that is where he was murdered. The only person who can communicate with him is the unbelieving Pen. Events make her believe in him and she even takes his advice when Timothy is killed in her bookstore and she is one of the prime suspects. Together they try to figure out who the real killer is before Pen is charged with murder.

THE GHOST AND MRS. MCLURE is a charming, funny and quirky mystery starring a suppressed widow and a simulating ghost who is attracted to her even though they can only meet in her dreams. His is hard boiled in the tradition of Phillip Marlowe and she is a genteel Miss Marple; yet the two opposites make an explosive combination. Alice Kimberly definitely has a hit series if the first book is anything to go by.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner