Starred review from September 24, 2018
Eleanor Wilde, the narrator of this outstanding series launch from Berry (Stealing Mr. Right as Tamara Morgan), makes a decent living as a fake medium, because she’s good at reading people. Her earnings help to support her catatonic sister, Winnie, at Happy Acres Sanctuary in Upstate New York, where Nicholas Hartford III, a wealthy Englishman, tracks her down. Nicholas, who shares Ellie’s skepticism, wants her to come to his ancestral estate in Sussex, to disabuse his mother of the mistaken notion that the place is haunted by a ghost named Xavier. Since the price is right, Ellie agrees. On arrival at Castle Hartford, Ellie is greeted by Rachel Hartford, Nicholas’s niece, who she later discovers is at least partly responsible for Xavier’s antics. The stakes rise when Ellie literally stumbles on a body on a hidden staircase inside the castle. Guided by Winnie’s voice, Ellie investigates a murder that relates to a family tragedy. Berry mixes a cunning whodunit with sly humor in what promises to be a winning paranormal cozy series. Agent: Courtney Miller-Callihan, Handspun Literary.