Who doesn't like a cozy mystery? Someone that doesn't appreciate the little things in life that's who. On days you want an easy fun read, a lot of people grab a simple mystery, usually filled with intelligent talking animals helping their humans, who are usually not detectives, solve a crime.
The Ghost and Mrs. McClure by Cleo Coyle, writing as Alice Kimberly, is a cozy mystery that sticks true to what people all know and love about the genre. It center's around Penelope McLure, the co-owner of a small book shop called Buy The Book, specializing in crime and mysteries. The catch? The book shop is haunted by a dead private eye named Jack Shepard. He was murdered in the 1940s while on a case in the building that would later be Buy The Book. Now, with his own murder still unsolved, and unable to leave the building, he spends his time messing with random people and construction workers. But when a famous author drops dead during a public appearance at Mrs. McClure's Buy The Book, Jack suspects murder.
Jack is a hard private PI who takes no flack from anyone. Mrs. McClure is a traumatized emotional widow, she is also the only one who can hear Jack. In between dealing with the store, her eight-year-old son, and thinking she's gone insane with a 1940s ghost talking to her, she sets out to solve the mystery of the best selling author who keeled over in her bookshop. Jack suspects murder, the police suspect murder, and Mrs. McClure is trying to hold herself together.
The author does a great job with the characters. They are all different, they all handle situations differently, and Jack's old fashioned slang is fun when added with the modern world. The author also does a great job with the setting. Buy the Book is a small town treasure that no one knows about until someone dies there.
The ending is predictable, as are most cozy mysteries, but that's ok it's one of the many reasons they are fun to read.
For anyone who likes simple fast reads of the cozy variety, The Ghost and Mrs. McClure is a great way to spend an evening.