Cozy Ghost Fiction

Divorced mother Chantilly Adair didn’t take the job as the head of the Castleberry Georgia Historical Society because she thought it would be easy, in fact, she felt the exact opposite, and that suited her just fine. Desperate to get away from Birmingham and her ex-husband, she took her pre-teen son and high-tailed it straight to her childhood home in Castleberry, Georgia, and the echoes of her recently deceased parents.

Hamming it up with equal parts history and histrionics, Phillip leads an archaeological dig of the farm's original dump site - until one student stops the show by uncovering some human bones. When a full skeleton is later excavated, Kath can't help but wonder if it's somehow connected to Geneva, the ghost who haunts her shop, and whom she met at this very site. After Phillip is found dead, it's up to Kath to thread the clues together before someone else becomes history.

Pet Mystery Week brings brisk business to Penelope's Rhode Island bookshop, but a real mystery comes barking at her door when a lost dog turns up in a panic. Pen and her son Spencer follow the furry fugitive to a wooded area where the dog's owner lies unconscious. Mrs. Cunningham is a warm-hearted widow who volunteers at the animal shelter and runs Buy the Book's pet lovers book club. Why would anyone shoot such a sweet soul? The police believe it's an accident, a shot by a careless deer hunter, but Pen remains skeptical.

M.J., Heath, and Gilley are back home in Boston, where their new film is sure to be a monster hit! To promote the film, the studio is sponsoring a special exhibit of supernatural artifacts at a local museum. Unfortunately, Gilley - whose mind is engaged with wedding plans - gets talked into donating to the exhibit the very dagger that keeps the dangerous ghost Oruç and his pet demon locked down in the lower realms. Before M.J. can recover the bewitched blade, there's a murder and a heist at the museum.

A ghostly visit from her former landlady draws Emma away from sleepy little Hillbilly Hollow to investigate a murder in the big city. But what seems like a straightforward case soon becomes entangled with an event from Emma's past and a personal quest for justice. With the attractive but bungling Sheriff Tucker at her side, will Emma be tempted by the chance to avenge an old wrong?

When out-of-work graphic designer Verity Long accidentally traps a ghost on her property, she's saddled with more than a supernatural sidekick - she gains the ability to see spirits. It leads to an offer she can't refuse from the town's bad boy, the brother of her ex and the last man she should ever partner with. Ellis Wyatt is in possession of a stunning historic property haunted by some of Sugarland, Tennessee's finest former citizens.

San Francisco millionaire Andrew Stirling wants to sell his Victorian mansion, but ghostly music, the squeaking of a long-disappeared weathervane, and an angry ghost keep running off potential buyers. After a famous psychic is called in, she informs the Stirlings that their multimillion-dollar renovations to "update" the home have left its resident ghost extremely agitated. So contractor Mel Turner is engaged to track down and replace some of the original features of the house.

When her cozy hometown is visited by death, Emma's investigative skills are enlisted by a secretive ghost. But with the uncooperative spirit holding so much back, and with the handsome local doctor pressing Emma for answers, will she ever get to the bottom of the case? Or will the Hollow be forever haunted by the secrets of the past?

Bridget Sway has been dead for seven years. She and her best friend, Sabrina, are running a wildly successful private detective agency. She gets to wear what she wants, eat what she wants, she's even made peace with her communal living situation. Everything is . . . perfect. And yet, once again, Bridget is drowning in dissatisfaction. The problem? No one is murdering anyone. Their days are filled with infidelity cases and not much else. So when a client's potentially cheating husband goes missing, Bridget and Sabrina jump at the chance to do something different.

If ever a whole town could be haunted, Devil's Moon, Kentucky would be that town. Ripley Van Raden, or Rip as her friends call her, has come back to her hometown to start her own ghost tour business. That's not her only career path, though. Librarian by day and ghost tour guide by night, Rip is ready to take on the ghosts following her around and the mysterious residents who show up for more than the tour in the Devil's Moon Cemetery.

I’ve got a ring on my finger and a date circled on the calendar, let the wedding planning begin! As luck would have it, the little wooded chapel I’ve got my heart set on is plagued by the not-so-nice spirit of a former bride. She died on what was meant to be her wedding day and isn’t going to step aside to let anyone else take her place at the altar. She claims the chapel is cursed and points to her own murder as a sure sign, but I’m not convinced.

In 1934, the body of a beautiful but poor young woman was found alongside a riverbank near The Depot. Beaten to a pulp, only recognizable by a tattoo on her ankle, and yet, days after the discovery, the story all but disappears. Eighty years later, locals claim The Depot is haunted.

For all its merriment, Christmas can also bring melancholy-and in Magic Springs, Idaho, Mia finds that the season has brought her an unhappy ghost who's pulling poltergeist-style pranks to get her attention. When she demands an explanation, the ghost just sends a message: Ask Mary Alice-that is, Mia's beloved Grans, who's been training her to develop her witchy talents. If anyone can figure this out, it's Grans . . . even if she still hasn't managed to free Mia's cat from a previous spell that she cast.

Norma is a modern-day nomad. Living out of her van and teardrop trailer, she revels in self-reliance, solitude, and reading in the glorious peace of nature. Jovial, wise, and scrupulously honest, she's become an uplifting presence in the little town of Quindicott, Rhode Island, where bookseller Pen is thankful to have her part-time help. But it's Norma's other job, working as a housekeeper at the Finch Inn, that gets her into terrible trouble. Norma is accused of stealing jewels from a guest's room: the legendary Valentino Teardrops.

Emily Buchanan believes in ghosts, but not in witches. Her skepticism turns to shock when Eternal Rest Bed and Breakfast hosts a coven, and she learns a truth that will reframe the past two years of her life. Emily will never look at her life or her late husband, Scott, in the same way again. But when one of the witches turns up dead, Emily suddenly has a houseful of suspects, and every one of them is pointing their wand at someone else. Emily must navigate personal agendas, bitter rivalries, and astonishing revelations to find the real killer.

It's Halloween in New Orleans, and the staff of Bon Vee Culinary House Museum is setting up a fantastic haunted house tour for their visitors. But when flashy movie star Blaine Taggart and his entourage move into the mansion next door, gift shop proprietor Ricki James-Diaz gets a fright of her own.

Dead bodies are expected in cemeteries, but not simply thrown into an open grave. The newspaper’s notorious food reviewer had plenty of enemies in the small town of Oak Hill, Georgia. Unfortunately, it’s Emily Buchanan’s good friend Trish who is the prime suspect, since the biscuits that killed him came from her bakery. As Emily tries to balance running Eternal Rest Bed and Breakfast and working to bring her late husband’s spirit home, she also has to help clear Trish’s name. After all, someone Emily knows and trusts could never be a killer…could she?

Answering Shakespeare trivia comes with the job description for library director Lindsey Norris. But when the Briar Creek Community Theater mounts their newest production of the Bard, she has no intention of leaving the stacks for the stage. Unfortunately a villain is waiting in the wings....

When one of the artists at the Oak Hill Arts Festival is found dead in his booth, he begins haunting photographs that might hold clues about his murder. Unfortunately, the clues all seem to point to Eternal Rest Bed and Breakfast. Is the artist trying to pin the blame on one of Emily’s guests, or does he want to communicate with the ghosts there? Sage can’t even sense the artist’s spirit, so it’s Emily who must find a way to communicate with it.

Ever since moving to Pinecroft Cove, Tamsyn has been faced with more questions than she can shake a stick at. What type of witch is she? What happened to her mother? Why can’t she bake a pie without it exploding? As this final mystery unfolds, she may finally get the answers she’s been seeking. Or, an evil witch and a demon baby might bring about the end of the world. It could go either way.