Review: Gone With The Ghost

Gone With The Ghost by Erin McCarthy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’m a big lover of gritty thrillers, the gory kind that leave many turning their heads, but something about the cosy mystery genre has always intrigued me. I have picked up one or two in the past, but never really stuck to them. They are the kinds of books I pick up when I want a bit of a break. However, despite how they are not my favourite kinds of reads, I still find myself intrigued by many books in the genre. Gone With The Ghost, the first book in Erin McCarthy’s Murder by Design series, is one such example.

At its heart, Gone With The Ghost is a cosy mystery; however, it is one of those cosy mystery layered by the paranormal. As I love a good paranormal read, I was even more intrigued by this one. It would be a nice easy read, mixing something I enjoy occasional with something I enjoy on a more regular basis. Part of me was unwilling to set my hopes high, whereas another part of me had set quite high expectations.

As a whole, I really enjoyed Gone With The Ghost. It is not the kind of book that will earn a spot in my favourite list, but it was an enjoyable read. In fact, I’m rather eager to pick up the future books in this series. I’m intrigued as to where the Murder by Design series is going to go, as I feel as though this is the kind of story I will grow to enjoy more and more as I work deeper into it.

You see, I really enjoyed the tone of the story telling. There was quite a bit of dry humour in this one with some wonderful puns, which had me laughing quite a lot. In fact, there were many occasions where I found myself sharing snippets of the story with my friend – I had to read out lines, even paragraphs, so she could appreciate what I was chuckling at. With such a fun way of storytelling, I quickly found myself coming to enjoy our leading character. I wasn’t as crazy about the side characters, in fact there were quite a few I didn’t like at all, but they all played together well in the story.

The thing that I felt the most let down about, though, was the mystery side. As I said, I favour the kinds of mysteries you find in gritty thrillers. This was all very tame to me, it wasn’t the kind of fun I usually enjoy. This reflects my mystery reading preferences, though, and for those who enjoy cosy mysteries I’m sure they will enjoy the mystery side of the story. After all, the story developed well as a whole – it simply wasn’t the kind of mystery I favour.

Overall, though, I had a lot of fun with this one. I’ll certainly be reading more in the Murder by Design series, and I’m sure I’ll be picking up other Erin McCarthy reads in the future. In fact, Erin McCarthy seems to write in quite a few different genres, and I’m interested to read a number of her books.

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