Review – Haunted House Ghost: Death At The Fall Festival by James J. Cudney

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About The Book:

Haunted House Ghost: Death At The Fall Festival (Braxton Campus Mysteries)
by James J. Cudney

It’s Halloween, and excitement is brewing in Braxton to carve jack-o’-lanterns, go on haunted hayrides, and race through the spooky corn maze at the Fall Festival.

Despite the former occupant’s warnings, Kellan renovates and moves into a mysterious old house. When a ruthless ghost promises retribution, our fearless professor turns to the eccentric town historian and an eerie psychic to communicate with the apparition. Meanwhile, construction workers discover a fifty-year-old skeleton after breaking ground on the new Memorial Library wing.

While Kellan and April dance around the chemistry sparking between them, a suspicious accident occurs at the Fall Festival. Soon, Kellan discovers the true history and dastardly connections of the Grey family. But can he capture the elusive killer – and placate the revenge-seeking ghost.

Book Links: Amazon / Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Leo Review sm Don’t let the cutesy retro cover of this book fool you. What lies within that cover is a good old fashioned Who-Dunnit, with scads of suspects, copious leads, and more twists and turns than a Halloween corn maze. So not a cookie-cutter cozy.

I am new to the Braxton Campus Series, but after reading this book, I cannot wait to go back and fill in the bits of the stories I have missed out on. Seriously, it has all the hallmarks of great detective television show, thanks in part to some well-written characters that leap off the page. I wasn’t sure if I should fear Nana D or laugh at her shenanigans. Kellen’s siblings are such bold strokes of color, they almost take the story over in whole new readable direction and the local citizenry are funny and abrasive and totally real.

I truly enjoy Kellan Ayrwick, “The Unlikely Death Locator.” When your almost girlfriend gives you a nickname like that you have to be something different. Not your typical cozy sleuth, Kellen is in his early thirties with a young daughter, a former Hollywood director turned college professor, and well, he’s a man. One doesn’t see that often enough in the genre. He has got a lot on his plate with raising his daughter and teen cousin while juggling his teaching job and keeping his never pleased boss happy while trying to find a way to turn his hot flirtation with the county sherrif into an actual relationship. It would be a lot easier if he could finish the renovations on his new home and just get the family settled in. Trouble is the house seems to be haunted and the alleged ghost doesn’t want him there making changes to the house.

When Kellen lives up to his nickname and finds a 50-year-old skeleton that might be connected to the history of his new house, he finds out that “whodunnit?” is just the first question that needs answering and Braxton is just full of skeletons, the kind that hang out in closets.

This book reads beautifully as a stand-alone, but it is its own advertisement for reading the rest of the series. I don’t have a lot of favorite authors, but James J. Cudney may just have made the list.

I received a free copy of the book for review purposes. The thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

About The Author:

James J Cudney James is my given name; most call me Jay. I grew up on Long Island and currently live in New York City, but I’ve traveled all across the US (and various parts of the world). After college, I spent 15 years working in technology and business operations in the sports, entertainment and media industries. Although I enjoyed my job, I left in 2016 to focus on my passion: telling stories and connecting people through words. My debut novel is ‘Watching Glass Shatter,’ a contemporary fiction family drama with elements of mystery, suspense, humor and romance. To see samples or receive news from my current and upcoming books, please subscribe with your email address at my website: https://jamesjcudney.com

What do I do outside of writing: I’m an avid genealogist (discovered 2K family members going back about 250 years) and cook (I find it so hard to follow a recipe). I love to read; between Goodreads and my blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, I have over 900 book reviews which will give you a full flavor for my voice and style. On my blog, there is humor, tears, love, friendship, advice, and bloopers. Lots of bloopers where I poke fun at myself all the time. Even my dogs have segments where they complain about me. All these things make up who I am; none of them are very fancy or magnanimous, but they are real and show how I live every day.

Websites & Blog

Website: https://jamesjcudney.com/

Blog: https://thisismytruthnow.com

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