Hope McIntyre, How to Marry a Ghost

How to Marry a Ghost

Hope McIntyre

Mysterious, January 2007, $24.99

ISBN 0892960140

English ghostwriter Lee Bartholomew travels from London to the Hamptons in Long Island, as the Maid of Honor at her mother's commitment ceremony to her partner American billionaire Philip "Phillionaire" Abernathy. Mom got the idea from the wedding section of the New York Times where gay couples, unable to legally marry because of sacred law sanctioning divorces between a man and a woman, announce their relationship. Of course mom is heterosexual, but she still is married to Lee's dad (bigamy being another sacred anti-sanctioning law).

Lee figures, while helicopter flying amidst the rich and famous, she plans to interview secluded rock legend Shotgun Marriot; ghostwriting rival Bettina Pleshette plots to do so also. However, Marriot's son and soon afterward Pleshette are found dead, apparently murdered. The attendees at the ceremony of Hope's mother and those living at the Marriot estate are the prime suspects. Knowing she now needs to mind her business and work with a new odd client Miss Haverstram, Hope inadvertently finds herself investigating the case.

Crossing the Atlantic, HOW TO MARRY A GHOST, the sequel to the witty amateur sleuth, HOW TO SEDUCE A GHOST, is an amusing intelligent cozy that will hook readers even before the first corpse washes onto the beach. Lee is terrific with her ironic assessments of relationships and the law before she gets involved in the homicides, and with Miss Haverstram's familiar sounding manuscript. Readers will enjoy Lee's antics as she tries to solve the murders whodunit murders and the manuscript mystery before returning across the pond.