A Spirited Tail (Mystic Notch Cozy Mystery Series Book 2)

This started off reasonably well with the heroine, Willa, discovering a man's dead body with a strange symbol marked on his forehead in the grounds of an old mansion with his faithful dog, Ranger, lying miserably by his side. Willa calls her sister, Gus, the local sheriff and you think you are in for a standard whodunit murder mystery. Unfortunately, things take a rather silly turn with the introduction of some unlikely ghosts, potions, mystic behaviour, rather odd characters, most of whom are superfluous and talking cats who, the author would have you believe, aren't really cats at all. OK, so they live in a place called Mystic Notch and it seems as though all the inhabitants there have some kind of mystical power but that isn't really explored in any depth. They all act a bit weird but nothing really comes of it. Only one ghost has any relevance to the plot and once the cats and dog start talking to each other, frankly it all gets a bit childish. Willa herself does hardly anything to solve the mystery and with the cats explaining what's going on instead of Willa having to figure it out for herself, the storyline just falls to pieces. In fact, there were inconsistencies throughout the story, including basic things like the books in an old, completely neglected property being in pristine condition and the main suspect's behaviour gradually becoming totally out of character . It really couldn't happen that there would be no damage from damp, decay or pests or that a greedy, cash strapped individual would change so completely. Whilst it was heartwarming that middle-aged Willa has an admirer, he spent so much time winking that I couldn't help wondering whether he had a bad twitch in one eye. Sorry, I gave this three stars because it kept me reading to the end to find out who the murderer was but I found it very childish and not at all convincing in any respect.

I enjoyed this book. A nice mix of mystery and humour. You might guess the guilty party, but not necessarily the reason.

Willa and her cat Pandora team up again (albeit Willa hasn't quite realised yet tnat they are a team mainly lead by Pandora) to help a murdered ghost find his killer. Sometimes a bit muddling with all her ponderings and clues but we get there in the end. Would've liked the romance with Dect, Striker to have moved forward a bit more but no doubt it will in future stories - will just have to keep reading them - not a problem! With the regular bookstore characters and villagers, this is a colourful and captivating read.

I know it maybe cheating a little but I'm writing the same review for all the Blackmoore Sisters and Ghostly Paws series to date because whilst I believe each book should be addressed on its own merit, I've enjoyed all these books equally and am now a fan of these two series by Leighann Dobbs and await the next ones. That and I'm a little new to online reviewing!I'm an avid reader and have studied Literature as my major but am in no way a book snob as I read broadly and believe that every Genre has it's place as long as they're well written.These are well written and well realised novels that are a light, easy and entertaining read. Good plots and likeable characters make them interesting and 'unputdownable'. I'm always on the lookout for lighter reads of a good standard to alternate with heavier reads and the author has joined my list. Ok so there might be the odd mistake, when writing who doesn't make mistakes she says herself to drop her a line so do that. It isn't as if they're riddled with grammatical errors and abysmal writing. In these days of indie authors and epublishing there's bound to be the odd mistake which most of the good writers admit to the possibility of anyway and are open to being corrected.

nothing too complex in a murder mystery that is told not only from a human perspective but also the cats.................A few twists before the big reveal

I wavered between 2 and 3 stars though ultimately opted for 3. The cosy style of writing is not my usual type of reading. The story kept me engaged enough to finish, though I had “suspend my disbelief” many times, perhaps too many times.

All these books are easy to read and are well proofreads.

Was an interesting read.a good story line.