Bea Reviews Silence of the Ghost by Erin McCarthy

Series: Murder by Design #2 
Publisher: SilverHart Publishing 
Source: pr firm in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: August 22nd, 2017 
Buying Links: Amazon* | Google Play | Kobo |  iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from PR firm:

Expert home stager Bailey Burke has come to terms with the fact that her friend, Ryan, is a ghost, but she thought after they solved his murder together, he would get sucked into the light. Instead he’s hanging around and interfering in her love life, and mocking her inability to drink Jameson.

When a body is found near her historic neighborhood of Ohio City, mimicking the famous Torso Murders, and she starts hearing voices, Bailey thinks she’s really lost it now. Ryan’s ghost is one thing, but a whole gaggle of undead talking to her? No thanks. But Ryan informs Bailey she’s not nuts…she is a spiritual medium. And with him as middleman between the victims and the police, they can give the dead justice and he will finally get his one-way ticket to heaven. Considering Eliot Ness allegedly went to his grave bitter that it was the one case he couldn’t solve, Bailey doesn’t see how an uptight lightweight like herself can handle the modern equivalent. But now that Ryan has scared off every man she’s tried to date, including his former partner Marner, she has Saturday nights free for murder-mystery solving.

Yet dealing with the dead is more difficult than de-cluttering a hoarder’s house. Bailey finds herself pulled in all directions… and possibly conned by a killer.

My Thoughts:

If there's one supernatural ability I never want to have, it's the ability to see and hear dead people. It's unnerving since you can't always tell the dead people from the living, they pop up without warning any time and anywhere, and you have no privacy. Just ask Bailey Burke, home stage and, apparently, ghost whisperer. Not only does her old friend Ryan pop unannounced on a regular basis, but other ghosts have started dropping in uninvited. She's understandably a bit freaked out by this.


I liked Bailey. She' a normal American woman who happens to see and speak with ghosts. She's both brave and fearful, funny and caustic, smart and stupid. She doesn't know a thing about investigating but she tries, and she's not afraid to ask for help, from both the living and the dead. She was good at her day job and full of confidence which was a nice contrast to her insecurities about her supernatural skills and duties. The romance was disappointing; first it hardly existed then wham bam, they're together. Marner is quiet, a bit patronizing but seems a decent guy. He has potential.

I was less impressed with Ryan, Bailey's late friend and occasional spectral helper. He was rude, self-centered, and thoughtless. He was apparently that way in life too. Maybe he'll move out of purgatory and pass into the light. :D McCarthy has set up an intriguing afterlife and I would love to know more about it. I have so many questions!

The mysteries themselves weren't complex and I figured one out early on. McCarthy heavily signaled who the villain was though a couple of interactions surprised me. For me, the story was less about the mysteries and more about Bailey, her work, her abilities, and her new unpaid career as a ghost whisperer. The story worked fine as a stand alone. If you read the first one, this one picks up mere ours afterwards.

"Silence of the Ghost" was a humorous blend of mysteries, amateur sleuthing, romance, family drama, and Cleveland history. While it didn't wow me, I did enjoy it and will probably read more in the series.

About the author ~ 

USA Today and New York Times Bestselling author Erin McCarthy first published in 2002 and has since written over seventy novels and novellas in teen fiction, new adult romance, paranormal, and contemporary romance. Erin is a RITA finalist and an ALA Reluctant Young Reader award recipient, and is both traditionally and indie published.

Find Erin Online:

Website: http://www.erinmccarthy.net/
Newsletter: http://www.erinmccarthy.net/newsletter-2/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7941.Erin_McCarthy
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Erin-McCarthy/e/B001ILHF5I/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ErinMcCarthyBooks/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/authorerin
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorerinmccarthy/