Bones Behind the Wheel
Bones Behind the Wheel A Haunted Guesthouse Mystery by E. J. Copperman Crooked Lane Books Mystery & Thrillers Pub Date 08 Jan 2019
Review
A Lincoln continental is difficult to ignore, particularly when it is buried in your backyard along with a skeleton- but that doesn’t mean Alison Kerby doesn’t try, despite her family’s and her resident ghostly investigator’s ardent interest in the very cold case. Adding to the fun is the car’s mysterious disappearance and reappearance. The mystery underlying Bones Behind the Wheel is fascinating - I was captivated from the start.
It is nice to see how Alison’s family interacts and works together on the case, along with Paul, the resident detective (deceased) and Maxie (also deceased). The interplay with Lieutenant McElone is often funny, but it’s clear she is a professional and not one to jump to conclusions, despite her dislike of ghosts. The one weak point characterwise is Alison. It is a case of “she protests too much”. Her reluctance to investigate comes across as a childish tantrum rather than a reasoned behavior. I can’t imagine anyone who wouldn’t be curious about the discovery of a car buried in their backyard with a skeleton inside - and that is before it disappears and reappears the following day.
Cooperman’s Haunted Guesthouse Series is a fun, highly original cozy mystery series where ghosts interact with certain humans, and in this case help investigate mysteries. Bones Behind the Wheel is an excellent addition, and it is mainly Alison’s irritating behavior that makes a 5 into a 4.
4 / 5
I received a copy of Bones Behind the Wheel from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.
— Crittermom
Description Barry Award-winning author E. J. Copperman is back with the tenth hilarious installment in his national bestselling Haunted Guesthouse mysteries. Haunted Guesthouse proprietress Alison Kerby and her ghostly guest detective, Paul, “auto” know better than to dig into the case of a long-buried sedan and its now-skeletal driver. Innkeeper Alison Kerby is determined to keep her mind, body, and soul focused on bringing high-spirited hospitality to her lodgers at the Haunted Guesthouse. She simply has no time for any more murder investigations, no matter what Paul Harrison, her resident ghost detective, says. But this time, the mystery comes looking for Alison. Workers unearth a 1977 Lincoln Continental buried in the sand behind Alison’s guesthouse—and they discover a skeleton still belted in behind the steering wheel. Paul, of course, is on the cold case—to the extent that a ghostly gumshoe can be—but Alison is still determined not to do the incorporeal investigator’s legwork. Not this time. But her new husband Josh is intrigued, and he offers to help Paul poke into the case of the cold Continental. Uh-oh…has Josh caught the investigation bug? It’s a harsh wake-up call for a harried businesswoman who’d thought she’d told the detective life to hit the road. What can go wrong? How about everything? As Alison dodges stray bullets, discovers a gun in the guesthouse, and reluctantly probes a decades-old murder that turns out to be shockingly relevant even today, her specter inspector tries to keep her spirits up. But as she searches for the key to unlock the case, is Alison headed for her final check-out? Make a reservation to find out in Bones Behind the Wheel, the tenth fun-filled Haunted Guesthouse mystery from national bestselling author E. J. Copperman.
