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Wednesday, January 9, 2013

2) What a Ghoul Wants by Victoria Laurie

The Blurb :

Kidwella Castle in northern Wales is rumored to be haunted by a deadly ghost—the Grim Widow, who allegedly drowns unsuspecting guests in the castle’s moat. Not long after M. J. and her crew arrive at the castle to film their ghost-hunting cable TV show, Ghoul Getters, two new victims are added to the Widow’s grisly roster.

Fear ripples through the castle, especially when it’s discovered that the victims may have had help into their watery graves from the land of the living. The local inspector suspects father-son serial killers, but M. J. thinks that theory is all wet. To catch the true culprit she will need to dive deep into the castle’s past and bring some long buried secrets to the surface.

My Thoughts :

What a Ghoul Wants is the seventh book in the Ghost Hunter Series. This is a series that has become extremely spooky and scary which means I don't want to be reading it before I go to bed. However as the plot unfolded I couldn't stop myself from reading this one as quick as possible. I couldn't wait to find out who the killer was and what would happen to all the ghosts. Good or evil.

Despite my eagerness to read this one, the amazing setting (my place of birth : Wales) and the spookiness there was however some small negative elements to this book. First, why does the author insist on sending the characters back to the UK all the time? It is a nice setting for ghost hunting but I am getting a little tired of the British setting and the stereotypical like comments the author is making about us Brits and in this book the Welsh. Of course there are little snippets that are making me giggle. It isn't like the author is being nasty. However slowly I am getting bored of the remarks and the 'tourist' attitude.

Secondly I am bored with the whole 'the network wants...' and Gopher attitude. It ruins the story for me and I don't want to always have the petty fights and pushiness included in the story. This time around it was more than prominent and although I agree that it is relevant to the story it just isn't something I want to read about.

So what else bothered me? The amount of characters. Way too many to keep track of. The length of the days in respect to how much the cast sometimes managed to get done. It wasn't totally believable at times. Gilley. I liked him but this time around he was annoying and something of a spoilt brat. The gay aspect doesn't bother me but it is way over the top somehow. The sister of the Grim Widow not getting involved and the fact that the wives being beaten was played down.

A long list but mostly little peeves. All in all I really did enjoy this book even if it doesn't seem like it. The plot was outstanding and all the ghost angles had me spooked. I like M.J. and I think Heath is pretty cool. Just this series needs some better direction instead of being thrown around the world on ghost hunting TV shows that the crew are basically being blackmailed to take part in.

Victoria Laurie writes two great cozy mystery series with some fun characters and lovely supernatural angles. I have to admit I love the Ghost Hunter Mysteries more than the Abby Cooper ones but despite that they are both must reads for me. Even if I did have some small complaints about this one I am extremely eager to read the next. The year wait will make sure that I have forgotten my woes about this one and make the next one even better.

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1 comment:

Aurian said...

I just read the first book in this series, and 9 or so in the other one. Then I bummed out. Not sure if I will continue someday.