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Cordelia Graves may have died a few months ago, but she’s still hanging around Boston. She’s kept up “residence” in her apartment, and she’s gone around the city looking for anything to keep her interest. Life has been pretty boring. She’s still figuring out some of the “rules” for her state of existence.
When Ruby Young moves into Cordelia’s apartment, Cordelia’s not excited about sharing the space. She’s particularly displeased that all but one of her plants have died under Ruby’s care. But she manages. It could be worse.
Then early one morning, Cordelia finds a dead body on the ground right outside her apartment building. It’s her neighbor across the hall, Jake. When his spirit rises from his body, she’s excited to have someone to talk to. But he poofs out of existence fairly soon, and she’s afraid it’s her fault for not giving him better post-life instruction.
Jake was shot, and the police are assuming it was a mugging. But a few items don’t add up, and Cordelia thinks the situation needs more investigating.
As it so happens, Ruby thinks the same thing. Cordelia manages to get her attention with a few ghost tricks, and the two work together, in an unusual way, on this case. Each uses her skills and particular attributes (one can walk through doors, and one can actually ask people questions, for example) to collect information.
The unlikely roommates actually become friends in a manner of speaking too. Cordelia, who was a 40-something introvert, ends up getting to appreciate the energy and extroversion of the 20-year-old Ruby. And Ruby appreciates Cordelia’s ingenuity. They make a great crime-fighting duo.
I do enjoy cozy mysteries, and A New Lease on Death certainly has an unusual twist! It’s fairly light and fun, and I found a good amount of it clever. I did wonder, however, why the two didn’t solve a few of their issues early on; they keep saying, for example, that they need better “systems” of communication. I think that would naturally be their first order of business to take care of. It felt like the situation is being artificially stretched out for further books. Other mysteries and hints are dropped regularly to indicate the threads that will be followed in more books. They are pretty obvious, and I kind of felt like I can already solve them, but I imagine the books will be entertaining anyway.
A New Lease on Death isn’t a five- or even a full four-star read for me, but it’s fun.
Rated: Moderate. Profanity includes 1 use of strong language, around 20 instances of moderate profanity, about 30 uses of mild language, and a few instances of the name of Deity in vain. Sexual content includes a lot of references to some characters having extramarital affairs, but no scenes or details.
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*I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
