BONES BEHIND THE WHEEL is the tenth book in E.J. Copperman's Haunted Guesthouse paranormal cozy mystery series. It's a common thing, in a mystery, for a character to discover a skeleton in the backyard. For Alison, she has the misfortune to have a Lincoln Continental discovered in her beach-bordered backyard. Alison is determined to stay out of the investigation, no matter how hard her resident ghosts, family, and husband try to lure her back in. I love this series and this pragmatic amateur sleuth. The living and the dead bedevil Alison as she tries to run her guesthouse. She eventually resigns herself to helping her crew solve the decades old murder mystery.

In BONES BEHIND THE WHEEL, Alison doesn't go looking for a mystery, but it is brought to her door when a beach clean-up crew stumble upon it. The humorous edge in BONES BEHIND THE WHEEL is reminiscent of the classic Hitchcock film THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY and helps break up the tension when things take a sinister turn. When the Lincoln disappears and reappears, Alison is drawn into the mystery more so to stop an annoyance rather than anything else. Everyone around her is fascinated even when things heat up and get a little more dangerous for this ghostly detective crew. As a reader, I find this to be one of the more perplexing yet enjoyable mysteries in this Haunted Guesthouse series. In this installment, Alison's resident ghosts have diverging interests. Maxie is obsessed with displaying her decorative skills around the house, while Paul busies himself with the cold case - aided by Alison's eager hubby Josh. E.J. Copperman builds the tension as the mystery goes from an amusing or annoying occurrence in the lives of Alison's family, to something that may hurt them.

BONES BEHIND THE WHEEL evokes Hitchcock with an equal number of laughs and thrills. The living and the dead are an equal mix of friends and foes with an entertaining story. The great supporting cast of characters created by E.J. Copperman has me coming back to this series every time. I look forward to E.J. Copperman's Haunted Guesthouse series.