Gone With the Ghost by Erin McCarthy

Title: Gone With the Ghost
Author: Erin McCarthy
Series: #1 in the Murder by Design series
Genre: Paranormal Cozy Mystery
Publisher: SilverHart Publishing (May 22, 2017)
Source: Purchased
Rating: ☕☕☕☕

Synopsis: Bailey Burke has had a rough six months—it’s not easy thinking your romantic overtures toward your best friend caused him to kill himself. Except that’s exactly what happened. Ryan is very much dead, having shot himself with his own police-issued gun. Guilt and grief shouldn’t cause hallucinations though, but six months after Ryan went into the ground, Bailey is freaking out and swearing his ghost is standing in her kitchen. Which he is…

Ryan claims he didn’t commit suicide, but was murdered, and he needs Bailey to help him find his killer so he can earn his ticket out of purgatory. Ryan’s counting on a stairway to heaven, as opposed to wings, since that might be a little unmanly for a cop, even a dead one.

An expert in home design, with her own staging business, Bailey can tell you where to place a couch to improve flow and comfort, but solving a crime? Not her area of expertise. But with help from Ryan’s former partner, Marner, she is unraveling the mystery of what happened to Ryan that day… and unwittingly putting herself in grave danger.

My Thoughts: Erin McCarthy is the queen of fun lighthearted reads.

The Good, The Bad, And Everything In Between: I love when the paranormal rubs elbows with mystery especially when it's chock full of humor. I giggled, smiled, and literally LOL a couple of times throughout this book. I enjoyed the various characters including Bailey and Ryan but wish they were more fleshed out. The book is rather short which is awesome for me because I have been struggling with sticking with longer books but, honestly, if it had been longer the characters could have been dug deeper into. In addition there is some closure to the mystery aspect but many dangly bits are left....well...dangling. Now I love me some dangly bits but in my books I don't necessarily like cliffhangers...even minor ones. I enjoyed this book so much though, I like to refer to those dangly bits as appetizers for the next course. I'm really looking forward to digging into the next one too.

In a Nutshell: This really was a fun book but make sure you have the next book lined up so you can jump right into it because you're going to want to.