If Walls Could Talk

Juliet Blackwell 2010

First book in the Haunted Home Renovation Mysteries

Mel Turner specializes in restoring old homes in the San Francisco Bay area – and it should come as no surprise that those homes have ghosts. Some are as old as the homes they haunt, but one ghost in particular is very new at the ghost gig, as Mel finds out. Meanwhile, home renovation sets the stage for a treasure hunt, and for murder.

This is a pretty standard contemporary cozy mystery; there’s the feisty heroine, the possible love interest, the dead body (and the dead body’s ghost), the heroine’s parent (I hadn’t mentioned this before, but it’s becoming increasingly obvious that parents are important players in lots of these books), and of course the killer.

Also, there’s a carsick chocolate lab who is probably my favorite character.

This is a pleasant read with no huge detractors. It didn’t keep me on the edge of my seat, but what cozy mystery does that anyhow? If you like the genre, you may like this book, although a subgenre of haunting and construction is a biiig stretch. Three stars.