Cozy Ghost Fiction

When Danielle Boatman inherits Marlow House, she dreams of turning it into a seaside bed and breakfast. Since she's never visited the property, Danielle's not sure what awaits her in Oregon. She certainly doesn't expect to find one of the house's previous owners still in residence. After all, the man has been dead for almost 90 years - shouldn't he have moved on by now? Charming Walt Marlow convinces Danielle the only way he can move on is if she solves the mystery of his death.

Fresh off my Voodoo-tastic vacation to New Orleans, I find myself presented with the first test of my newly discovered magic. There's been a murder in the neighboring town of Pine Shoals and the victim has decided she's not cut out for the spectral life and needs a gentle push into the Otherworld.

The first rule of being a ghost whisperer: Don't tell anyone. Seriously. Don't. Sure, it might sound harmless. A fun party trick, even. I assure you, it's not. How do I know? Well, let's just say that I've had a lot of experience with this sort of thing, and nine times out of 10, it turns into an all-consuming disaster.

Scarlet Sanderson isn't a paranormal being per se, but she's no stranger to things that go bump in the night. She's had the ability to see and speak with ghosts since she was eight years old. Whether it's a gift or a curse is still up for debate. She moved to the picturesque town of Beechwood Harbor to open a flower shop and start a new life after years of being a nomad. What she didn't expect to find was a town filled with witches, vampires, shape-shifters, and ghosts. So, so many ghosts.

Bopped on the head from a falling plastic Santa, local undertaker Emma Lee Raines is told she's suffering from "funeral trauma." It's trauma all right, because the not-so-dearly departed keep talking to her. Take Ruthie Sue Payne - innkeeper, gossip queen, and arch-nemesis of Emma Lee's granny - she's adamant that she didn't just fall down those stairs. She was pushed. Ruthie has no idea who wanted her pushing up daisies, but she can't cross over until the matter is laid to eternal rest. Emma Lee's high-school crush, Sheriff Jack Henry Ross, isn't ready to rule out foul play.

With all the ghosts that haunt her at this time of year, Carly doesn't exactly rush to celebrate Halloween. Even a costume ball organized by her boyfriend Dylan's mother, Patricia Davis Jackson, holds little allure. But to please Dylan, who wants peace between the two women, Carly reluctantly agrees to go.

A grieving young widow, Charlene needed a new start - so she bought a historic mansion, sight unseen, and drove from Chicago to New England to start turning it into a bed-and-breakfast. On her first night in the house, she awakens to find a handsome man with startling blue eyes in her bedroom. Terror turns to utter disbelief when he politely introduces himself as Jack Strathmore - and explains that he used to live here - when he was alive. He firmly believes that someone pushed him down the stairs three years ago, and he won't be able to leave until someone figures out who.

A hotshot real estate developer arrives in Sully's Landing, touting his plans to build a tacky amusement arcade smack dab in the middle of the tasteful cliffside town. No one in Sully's Landing can stand the gaudy developer, but it's still a shock when he ends up murdered. It's even more shocking when Liza's friend Doug emerges as the chief suspect. Melanie and Liza put on their sleuthing caps yet again and set out to clear Doug's name.

Melanie West is getting her life back on track after a messy divorce when her grandmother, Liza Harris, asks her to join her in opening a bed-and-breakfast inn. Together, Liza and Melanie purchase a purportedly haunted mansion on the Oregon coast and jump right into clearing out the cobwebs. But while attempting to remove wallpaper in an upstairs bedroom, the new B&B owners stumble upon a very real skeleton in their closet.

The mediums of Beach Drive don't take rumors of a witches' coven seriously - not until it threatens one of their own. Meanwhile, Officer Brian Henderson can no longer ignore the secrets of Marlow House. Can he handle the truth?

Life is about to change for Brian Henderson, now that he knows the secrets of Beach Drive. Unbeknownst to Brian and the others, they have brought something else home with them after their misadventure in the forest. The spirit of a mountain man has followed them to Frederickport with a secret of his own.

A killer strikes under Frederickport Pier. Before dawn the next morning, Marlow House's celebrity guest, mystery author Hillary Hemingway, is busy writing about the crime for her upcoming novel - including details that only the real killer would know. Coincidence? If so, it isn't the first time.

Vacation goals... I have them. Real life is not cooperating. I don't require poolside margaritas under a fancy cabana to have a good time. All I wanted was 10 ghost-free days to enjoy sightseeing New Orleans with my boyfriend, to admire art galleries, listen to live music, and eat as many beignets as I can before my pants stop buttoning. I might as well have asked Santa for a unicorn.

When Clint Marlow's partner in crime is found murdered in the basement of Marlow House, Clint is the likely suspect. The only problem: Clint is dead. But that doesn't matter to the FBI agents investigating the case. Clint looks alive to them.

It's hard to know who to trust when you're worth billions. Christmas brings uninvited family members to Marlow House, vying for Chris Glandon's favor. One of them may have already killed for it. In the midst of the mystery, Lily is distracted with one question - what isn't Danielle telling her?

Hollywood descends on Marlow House in preproduction for the movie adaptation of Walt's best-selling novel, Moon Runners. Hoping for inspiration, they found death instead. There's a murderer loose, and as the body count increases, secrets are revealed - and it starts to get a little crowded with all these new ghosts hanging around.

There's never a good time for a ghost crisis. However, it's particularly inconvenient while I'm trying to tackle my first wedding season. Between 12-hour days, an assistant with a case of butterfingers (not the chocolate kind), and the flood of tourists in town, I'm struggling to keep a grip on my sanity. All I want is three months of peace from the spirit world. But when local ghosts start going missing, I have to do something.

Past and present collide when a secret from the 1920s wreaks havoc on Marlow House. Walt struggles to remember what he may have forgotten before it's too late.

Turning the one-time seaside B & B into a Halloween haunted house for a local fundraiser seems like a good idea. After all, Eva and Marie's ghosts are willing to help. However, the two spirit friends of Marlow House are not the only ghosts to stop by. Danielle and her friends are about to learn there might be something to that old legend that says on Halloween night the barrier between the living and dead becomes blurred and the spirits of the dead visit earth. Maybe not all of earth - but at least Marlow House.

When Marlow House reopens as a bed and breakfast, one of its first guests is Danielle's former mother-in-law, who Danielle has not talked to since moving to Oregon. The mother-in-law brings with her one of the country's top mediums. Or as Danielle calls him, one of the country's top con-men.