A Death In The Family

By Tish Owens

ISBN13: 9780999632703

Brought To You By OBS Reviewer jerjen

Synopsis:

Tess Maher’s sister and best friend drag her to a seance in Nashville. much to Tess’ annoyance. Tess keeps complaining she doesn’t need a Ouija board to see the deceased. In the course of the evening, shades show up and Tess begins to relax and watch other people communicate with the dead. Until one spirit shows up to inform his ex-wife that he didn’t die of natural causes, and informs the room Tess could be of help. The ex-wife hires Tess, who is a private investigator, to ferret out the truth. Tess loves her job, possibly because she is naturally nosy. However, her newest case may be the one which causes her to change professions, if she survives. Tess is thrown headlong into convoluted family dynamics and a feud which threatens to blow up in her face. This is one hot case, with murder, arson, deep seeded family hatred, money and lots of it, jealousy, danger, and of course dead people who keep showing up. (Goodreads)

Review:

Sometimes when you read a book, something clicks and you enjoy the book more than usual.  That is what happened to me when I read this book.  If I could I would give it more than five stars, that is how much I liked it.

I enjoy books that have ghosts and this was a good one.  Tess is able to communicate with the dead, which is sometimes good but oftentimes not so good.  Her family and friends know of her ability but others, like law enforcement, do not, and that makes things difficult at times. 

When Tess goes to a seance, she sees ghosts that others do not see.  One of these ghosts is a man that says he was murdered and tell his ex-wife that Tess can help solve his murder.  And when Tess takes the case, she takes on much more than she expected.   It will take all of her abilities as a private investigator and some help from the great beyond if she has any chance of solving it.  

The characters are well developed and well rounded.  I really liked Tess, she is a take-charge, no-nonsense woman.  She loves being a private investigator and she desperately wants to see justice served in any case.  She is not easily scared and if she is scared, that only makes her try harder. She has not had an easy life, she lost her best friend to a killer, and she does not think she will ever get over that.  Tess’s family and friends are very important to her and they keep her grounded.  

The author is very talented in creating suspense with just the written word.  Tension kept growing chapter after chapter and I got more nervous the farther I read into the book. I was afraid to read the last few chapters because I did not know what was going to happen.  But I am glad that I gathered my courage and kept reading because there was a climactic ending.   

I would highly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys a well crafted ghostly mystery.  I would not recommend it for young adults because of some of the language, but that language made it feel more realistic to me.  I will definitely read more books by this author.