Bea Reviews Doom with a View by Kate Kingsbury

Series: Merry Ghost Inn Mystery #2
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: September 12th, 2017 
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | Kobo | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

With the arrival of six senior reading group members at the Merry Ghost Inn, the long-awaited Grand Opening week has finally begun for Melanie West and her grandmother, Liza. All is well with the Oregon coast-side B&B until Melanie's dog, Max, finds the dead body of one of their guests. Everyone at the inn immediately falls under suspicion, including the innkeepers themselves. Melanie and Liza are not sure who they can trust, and the idea of cohabitating with a murderer is enough to send chills down anyone's spine. To make matters worse, the curmudgeonly town detective wants them to steer clear of the investigation, but doesn't seem too inspired to solve the case in a timely fashion himself. To clear their own names and to avoid the blight on the inn's reputation that yet another dead body will bring, Melanie and Liza dive headlong into the murder investigation. With a little help from their chuckling ghost, Melanie and Liza dodge the detective, tip-toe around their suspicious guests, and still serve up delicious Bed & Breakfast meals on time in Kate Kingsbury's delightful second Merry Ghost Inn mystery, Doom with a View. 

My Thoughts:

I'm always on the lookout for new cozies and this one sounded appealing with a B&B in a new location and a possible ghost. And since it's the second in the series, I figured it would be easy to jump in, which it was.

After some troubles while they were remodeling, they are finally ready for business. But shorty after their first group arrives, they notice tension in the group and then one of them dies, apparently of murder. After the previous murder at their location, Melanie and Liza are understandably worried about how this will affect their reputation both locally and professionally.

Although warned by the police to stay out of the investigation and not meddle, the ladies decide to help themselves, and the police, by quietly making inquiries. Their guests have been told by the police to stay put during the investigations but that means the next group of registered guests would have no place to stay. Melanie and Liza are also trying to get more information about the ghost who may or may not haunt the inn and Melanie begins a romance while dealing with some personal issues.

Melanie, Liza, Cindi their assistant, and all of the characters were enjoyable even though some were hard to like. Liza was quirky almost to the point of grating, Kingsbury is treading a fine line. The other characters though were engaging and interesting. The mystery kept me guessing though there were hints sprinkled throughout the story for readers who are paying attention.  The personal issues that Melanie was dealing with dragged down the story a bit but they are interesting, just needed to woven into the story more carefully. As for Orville the ghost, is he real or not? I was leaning toward real by the end of the story but Kingsbury doesn't give a definitive answer. "Doom with a View" was a fun and interesting mystery.