The Ghost of Marlow House

Haunting Danielle Series, Book 1

By: Bobbi Holmes, Anna J. McIntyre

Narrated by: Romy Nordlinger

When Danielle Boatman inherits Marlow House, she dreams of turning it into a seaside bed and breakfast. Since she's never visited the property, Danielle's not sure what awaits her in Oregon. She certainly doesn't expect to find one of the house's previous owners still in residence. After all, the man has been dead for almost 90 years - shouldn't he have moved on by now?

Charming Walt Marlow convinces Danielle the only way he can move on is if she solves the mystery of his death. Danielle soon discovers her real problems may come from the living - those who have their sights on Marlow House's other secrets.

©2014 Bobbi Holmes (P)2017 Tantor

Not a dealbreaker

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The narrator is a little off. It sounds like she's reading for a group of kids and all the character voice changes are the same. All the men sound alike (pompous alto, pompous bass) All the females sound as if they are immature or are all straining to talk while they poop. You get use to it, but it takes effort.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Anti-climatic and predictive.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

Read the book and got a sense of the characters personalities. Remembered what voices/ tones she took with different characters and stuck with it. All females don't sound like they are straining.

Did The Ghost of Marlow House inspire you to do anything?

Try to find better books.

Any additional comments?

I want to see how the series goes since there really isn't much out there, but it's hard.

Cute

The story was cute. That is the best way that I can describe it. It defiantly held my attention from beginning to end in one sitting. Refreshing story line, Narration was great.

A cozy-like ghostly mystery

I would mostly classify this as a cozy. Language is kept to a minimum and there are no sexual situations. It doesn’t have the usual quirky quality to it that cozies do though; the tone is a bit more serious.

While this book kept my interest, I was a bit frustrated with it at times because it felt rather over-padded with repeated information. There was also a lot of head hopping within chapters, but instead of offering a more well-rounded picture of events from multiple perspectives, it resulted in characters needing to re-explain things to each other more often than if the whole book had been in only Danielle’s POV. This also managed to take a lot away from the mystery itself, so that when the reveal happened, it was more a confirmation of what everyone already knew fairly early on, as opposed to the more satisfying “I knew it!” (or, the more fun, “I never would have guessed!”).

As for the narrator, her reading was a bit too sing-songy for me. A few other reviews said she sounds like she’s reading a children’s bedtime story more so than a novel for adults, and I mostly agree with that. Her voice is clear and pleasant to listen to, but the tone doesn’t really match the material.

All that said, I was pulled along enough that I’ll grab the next book. I’m curious to see who comes to haunt Danielle next.

Fun twist on The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

The story is fun a fun take on The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. Sadly, the narration doesn't do as much as it could to distinguished between characters or to make it clear when a character is thinking and when speaking. It leads to some confusion in various parts of the story.

Start of a good friendship

Start of a good series. Looking forward to next visit with Walt and Danielle