New Jersey prosecutor Sandy Moss is tired of petty criminals, and a new job at a glitzy Los Angeles law firm seems the perfect career move. Putting 3,000 miles between her and her ex-boyfriend is just an added bonus. But on Sandy's first morning as a family attorney, she inadvertently kills her new career stone dead when she offends her boss during a meeting with the firm's top celebrity client, charismatic TV star Patrick McNabb. But that's not as dead as Patrick's soon-to-be ex-wife is that evening when she's discovered shot by an arrow, her husband standing over her. Did Patrick really kill his wife in a dispute over a pair of shoes? All signs point to yes. But Patrick is determined to clear his name, using all the legal skills he's learned from playing a lawyer on TV, and to Sandy's deep dismay, she's the only person he'll let help him.
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?
Solving a murder way too close to home, Alison Kerby can't catch a break.
If Alison Kerby really wanted peace and quiet, she never should have opened the Haunted Guesthouse. The Jersey Shore lodge's latest polter-guest is Richard Harrison, the recently murdered brother of long-time resident ghost PI Paul Harrison.
Alas, a beyond-the-grave brotherly reunion is nowhere in the foreseeable future-phantasmal Paul left the guesthouse months ago for parts unknown, and for all her ghost-whispering prowess, Alison has no idea how to find him. And she's going to need Paul, because Richard's isn't the only murder still unsolved.
Richard, a lawyer in life, tells Alison that he had been working the case of a woman accused of murdering her stepfather. When Richard got too close to the truth, he was permanently silenced. Now, as Alison searches for Paul, she gets a creeping sensation that the murderer doesn't appreciate her snooping around. If she doesn't succeed in her hunt, she has the feeling that she'll be the next to haunt the house.
