A Ghost Hunter’s Guide to Solving a Murder

A Ghost Hunter’s Guide to Solving a Murder (2024) F. H. Petford

Set in Cornwall, England in 1915

First, this is not a cozy supernatural mystery.

Despite the title and despite the cover.

Which is why I started this book and then dropped it for several months, since it wasn’t what I was expecting (or quite in the mood for). But I didn’t know what I wanted to read, so I picked it back up and then finished it.

Alma Timperley is stunned to learn she has inherited an inn. The Timperley Spiritualist Hotel, of Swanpool Road, Falmouth to be precise. She doesn’t know why she was chosen to inherit the business, but she DOES know that ghosts are real, as she is a strong medium herself, although she has not acted as such in years.

England is caught up in the Great War, and many people want to try to contact their sons, brothers, and husbands killed in the war, so the hotel is quite busy, but Alma isn’t sure she wants to take up being a medium again, despite being a strong one.

Nearly everyone who stays here wants to contact a dead relative or friend. This dreadful war means that these days we are almost exclusively working for families who have lost sons in France.

Additionally, she isn’t quite sure her aunt’s death was quite as accidental as everyone said.

Here is the thing about this story. Alma isn’t an intrepid spiritualist looking to solve the murder of Gladys Timperley. Instead it’s a story about the Great War, and spying, and traitors who will murder to protect themselves. Alma happens to be at the center of things, but not actively so.

This does not make this a bad story–in fact, it’s an interesting story and once I stopped expecting it to be something it wasn’t a quite enjoyed it. But failing to meet my expectations was quite a hurdle. As was the fact that most of the bits about Alma’s spiritualist schooling could have been omitted. And a couple other editing choices I took issue with. For example, the traitor is initially referred to as Excalibur. But once the story reveals his identity, it still occasionally refers to him by his code name or the German or something similar.

I liked that we learned who the traitor/murderer was long before the characters. But the way the murderer was references was a bit clunky in the middle.

I also liked the historical bits, from the mention of the Christmas truce, to the Zeppelin raid, to failing to recognize the danger the telegraph would be in (and how spies were somewhat looked down upon).

There had been rumours of an informal truce between the British and the Germans on Christmas morning, and even a game of football in no man’s land.

‘I’d been there a year when war broke out and at six o’clock one morning we suddenly found the camp was full of Hun sailors with rifles. They’d landed off a German cruiser called the Emden and were intent on wrecking our gear so we couldn’t pass signals.’

All in all an interesting mystery, but don’t pick it up expecting a cozy with a plucky investigator.

Characters: Alma Timperley, James Nascent, Mrs Hilda Neal, Gladys Timperley, Mr George Weaver, Mr Valentine Wragge, Kate Diss, Polly, Alan Bricken, Vernon Kell, Mr Bright (MI5), Mrs Banks, Maisie Wilson, Gracie Banks, Alf, Mrs Wilson, Jack Waring, Marran Gray, Lady Miranda Prior, Captain John Hyde, Sergeant Trewin, Constable Arthur Robinson, Inspector Luke, Dr Emmanuel Grant, Nell McGuigan, Sally Regan, Countess Wight, Lady Buchanan of Rannoch, Harry French, Lady Watson, Alexander Watson, Felix Muller, Herr Weiss, Fräulein Charlotte Weber, Jürgen Weber, Captain Bauer, Melvyn, Mr Coren, The Reverend Alston

Cover design by Lisa Horton

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Rating: 7.5/10

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