a mystery tour to murder

When Sarah Grayson agreed to go on the spring house tour with her friend Michelle, she thought they were trying to find ideas for Michelle’s first house. She’s still trying to find the right place and to get her offer in before everyone else. Sarah didn’t think that the tour would lead them to a murder victim.

It was at the second stop on the tour, Gladstone House, that they stopped entire house tour. The house had ben turned into a bed and breakfast by Annie Hastings, who ran it with her granddaughter Emily. It was rumored to be haunted, that the ghost of Emmeline Gladstone can occasionally be seen in a bedroom window, as she waited for her love, Captain Joseph Phillips to come home to her.

Only two of the upstairs bedrooms had been open to those on the tour, and the dead man was in neither of them. But as Sarah looked down the hall, she noticed a foot where there shouldn’t have been a foot. Michelle, a detective, went past the barrier to investigate and found that the man was dead. She immediately calls the station, and while Sarah stands at the bottom of the stairs, keeping anyone from going upstairs, police start arriving in minutes.

By the time Sarah gets back home, Rose already knows that a man was murdered at Gladstone House. Rose had been cooking, with the help of Sarah’s cat Elvis as taste-tester, and had already been called. Rose is Sarah’s tenant, works part-time at Sarah’s store Second Hand, and is a member of Charlotte’s Angels, a private detective firm. As an Angel, Rose has contacts everywhere, so she gets information quickly.

The news spreads through the town, that the man was Mark Steele, the host of the ghost debunking show Night Moves, where he chases down those who use ghost sightings as a way to draw in tourists. He had heard about the sightings at Gladstone House, even though Annie had never advertised it. She had refused to be on the show, but the man refused to take no for an answer and kept coming back. Finally, someone convinced him that filming there was not going to happen, but it cost him his life.

Delia Watson, his executive producer, shows up in town and hires the Angels to find out what happened to the man. Sarah doesn’t trust the woman, but she is convinced by Mr. P., Rose’s boyfriend, that Delia will hire someone, and if it’s the Angels, then they’ll have more control over how the story is told. Everyone who is a part of the Angels agree, over Rose’s coffee cake, and they get to work.

Sarah isn’t officially an Angel, but she’s close enough to keep an eye on them, as they operate out of her shop. But when Mr. P.’s research on the history of the Gladstones and on the story of Emmeline and Captain Joseph turns up some family secrets, she starts to worry about him and Rose getting too close to a killer. Will she be able to keep them safe, or will the Angels get too close to danger?

Scaredy Cat is the tenth book in the Second Chance Cat Mystery series. Author Sofie Ryan has created a community of characters in these books that makes reading them feel like coming home. It seems like everyone around her have several roles around the shop, around town, and in her found (and actual) family. Each of these people seem fully formed, with the murder mystery being a side note to their story.

Honestly, I would be happy with these books just following these characters, without the murder mysteries. I just love spending time in North Harbor, Maine with this group. But the mysteries are well plotted, and I really loved this one with the television show debunking ghost sightings at the center of it. I am a big fan of Elvis, but almost all the humans are pretty amazing too. This is a fun series, a comforting place to spend time, and a fantastic story. I just wish I had a frozen cake in my freezer to pull out too.

Egalleys for Scaredy Cat were provided by Berkley through NetGalley, with many thanks.