Pepper Martin, cemetery tour guide and unexpected medium, is
used to the ghosts of dead people approaching her to solve
their murders. In fact, she's sort of developed a reputation
in the spirit world as the Private Investigator of the Dead.
She didn't ask for this Gift, but since she's got it, she
feels she should use it to help out a ghost when she can. So
she wasn't really shocked to see the ghost of a beautiful
young girl approach her while using public transportation
one morning.
The ghost is teenager Lucy Pasternak who was murdered on her
way home from a Beatles' concert 45 years ago. She knows she
was murdered but she doesn't know by whom and she wants
Pepper to find her body and let everyone know what happened
to her all those years ago. You see, people thought she had
simply vanished, never to be heard from again. Instead, Lucy
has been trapped riding the same rapid that she was on the
night she died; the night that should have been one of the
most exciting in her young life. On that night, at the
concert, Lucy had rushed the stage and kissed Paul
McCartney. It was the last happy memory that Lucy would take
to her grave.
Pepper has some issues of her own to deal with, including
trying to get over the breakup with Quinn, a handsome cop
that she still thinks about all the time. She figures that
working on finding Lucy's body and figuring out who killed
her will keep the demons at bay. On top of that, her friend
and boss, Ella, has asked for help with her 15-year-old
daughter, Ariel. This is more than enough to keep her mind
occupied and off of the dashing Quinn.
As it turns out, Lucy and Ella had been friends and Ella was
the last person to see Lucy before she vanished. So Ella
really pressures Pepper to help with this. Of course, no one
knows of the special Gift that Pepper has so she has to use
her creativity and ingenuity to conduct her investigation.
In addition to everything else, Ariel suddenly decides that
Pepper is her role model and starts helping in the
investigation.
Yes, Pepper has a lot to contend with while trying to locate
Lucy's body and solve the mystery of her of murder. Then
dead bodies start turning up. Will Pepper be able to solve
this mystery without turning into a ghost herself? The
surprise ending is one you won't see coming!
This was absolutely one of the most delightful books I've
read in a while! It has humor, mystery, the supernatural,
and a touch of romance. It's the latest in the Pepper Martin
Mystery series and I'll now be reading the rest of them. For
people that enjoy an involving, PG rated sort of mystery,
Casey Daniels provides the perfect story. Don't miss this one!
What happened to a teenager named Lucy one night in 1966
after a Beatles concert? She rushed the stage, kissed
Paul, started home with her friends, and was never seen
again—until cemetery guide and unintentional PI to the
dead Pepper Martin sees her as a ghost. Lucy’s spirit
can’t rest in peace until her body is found and buried.
But how will Pepper track down a missing corpse after
forty-five years?
With a little help from her friends, of course...
Excerpt
August 14, 1966
Here’s the thing people don’t get about Lucy Pasternak, I
mean people who never met her: Lucy sparkled.
Back when the rest of us Baby Boomers where white bread
ordinary, Lucy was one of the beautiful people. Inside and
out. She wasn’t afraid to let it show, either. Lucy let her
personality shine through, no matter what people said or
thought about her. Like that time the kids in her sophomore
class were picking on a newcomer simply because she was new,
and Lucy stood up for the girl and welcomed her to her lunch
table (which, because it was Lucy’s, was the lunch table).
Or the night we went to the Beatles concert at Cleveland
Municipal Stadium, and Lucy wore a miniskirt seven inches
above her knees. Nobody was doing that then. I mean, nobody
but the models in the fashion magazines. My mother
practically choked when Lucy walked in to pick me up to go
the concert. And me? I don’t think the word dork had been
coined yet, but I didn’t need a word to explain how I felt
standing next to tall, reed-thin Lucy in my turquoise and
white plaid skirt, my blue blouse, my knee socks, and the
matching cardigan my mother insisted I wear in case it got
chilly. Oh yeah, I was a dork, all right, and I could only
pray that by the time three years passed and I was
seventeen—as old and mature as Lucy—I’d be half as cool.