Home Renovation Mystery

San Francisco contractor Mel Turner is leading a volunteer home renovation project, and while she expects lots of questions from her inexperienced crew, she can't help asking a few of her own - especially about the haunted house next door . . . the place local kids call the Murder House. But when volunteers discover a body while cleaning out a shed, questions pile up faster than discarded lumber.

Turner Construction's latest restoration project is a historic Queen Anne Victorian in San Francisco. This time, general contractor Mel Turner has to work around the owners, who insist on sticking around-along with some ghosts that insist in their own way that the work stops. The ghosts aren't the only ones standing in the way of the renovations. A crotchety neighbor, Emile Blunt, secretly wants this house and could be behind some of the disturbances. But when Emile is found dead, it's Mel who appears guilty.

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.

Jaime and Henry were the perfect couple with the perfect life; together, they ran one of the most successful construction and interior design companies in all of Charlotte, North Carolina. But when Jaime catches her charismatic husband in an affair, she realizes her husband is not the man she thought she married. The divorce is equally gutting—she receives only one thing: a historical house in disrepair. Knowing that any renovation she attempts will be tedious and costly, she starts to believe that things can’t get much worse—until she finds a dead body in the house.

Lately, Mel has been worried about finding enough historic renovation work to pay the bills. But while Turner Construction is in need of a project, Mel's boyfriend, Graham, has his hands full managing the reconstruction of an ancient building shipped over from Scotland. With the job plagued by rumors that the stones are cursed, Graham brings in Mel to look for paranormal activity.

Mel Turner can't resist the chance to bring the Crockett Theater, a decrepit San Francisco art nouveau movie palace, back to life. But there's a catch for Turner Construction: Several artists are currently squatting in the building, and they aren't the only ones haunting the once-grand halls of the historic theater.... When one of the squatters is found dead, the police department has a long list of suspects to investigate.

Word has spread that contractor Mel Turner can communicate with the spirits of the dead, and she's having a hard time maintaining a low profile. She decides to embrace her reputation for the chance to restore a historic house that calls to her. The new owners, who hope to run a haunted bed-and-breakfast, want Mel to encourage the ghosts that supposedly roam the halls to enhance the house's paranormal charm. The catch: Mel has to spend one night in the house to win the project.

Melanie Turner has made quite a name for herself remodeling historic houses in the San Francisco Bay Area. But now her reputation may be on the line. At her newest project, a run-down Pacific Heights mansion, Mel is visited by the ghost of a colleague who recently met a bad end with power tools. Mel hopes that by nailing the killer, she can rid herself of the ghostly presence of the murdered man - and not end up a construction casualty herself....