Stevie‘s review of The Christmas Spirits on Tradd Street (Tradd Street, Book 6) by Karen White
Women’s Supernatural Detective Fiction published by Berkley 22 Oct 19
In an effort to read more holiday fiction this year, I got hold of a review copy of this book based on having read a stand-alone novel by the author before, and without realising that this one was part of an ongoing series. Going more on the title than anything more than a quick skim of the blurb, I was also expecting friendly ghosts pointing the way to Christmas Cheer and helping our protagonists solve suitably cosy mysteries. That wasn’t quite what I got.
Melanie works in real estate in Charleston (incidentally a place of which I hold very fond memories), while her husband Jack is an author who has been experiencing difficulties with both his writing and his publisher since a previous book concept was stolen by his arch-rival – Melanie’s ex, now married to her cousin – and turned into a best seller, on which a film is about to be based. Melanie, meanwhile, is very aware of the unquiet dead – not many of them both friendly and helpful – who surround her, her family, and her friends in their various historic homes.
Melanie and Jack’s home, or at least its garden, is currently the site of an archaeological dig, which has disturbed several ghosts with ties to the property and to previous mysteries that Melanie has played a part in solving. Melanie is putting off dealing with this current batch of ghosts due to the pressures of work, her young twins, and the upcoming Christmas fundraising events in which she and her house are expected to play a major role. The dead, however, are not planning on staying quiet.
Melanie reluctantly begins investigating and learns that her ex is plotting new machinations against Jack and his career, as well as disrupting her life by strong-arming Melanie into allowing the film crew for the adaptation of his book full access to her house, where the book is set. As it becomes clear that the mystery surrounding the newly active ghosts may involve hidden treasure from the time of the American Revolution, Melanie and her ex become involved in a race to solve the puzzle and each claim the treasure for themselves.
This was a very twisty book, and while I liked the puzzles and their historical background, I really couldn’t warm to any of the characters. Melanie and Jack are supposedly facing financial ruin, but can still afford to pay a housekeeper, a nanny, a handyman, and various other household helpers. I can only imagine that their idea of hardship is to do their own cooking, washing up and DIY. I don’t mind reading about the better-off tiers of society usually, but I like to see some acknowledgement from the author that the staff have lives and worries of their own too. I was also disappointed by the number of loose ends left at the close of the book, mostly relating to subplots that had dragged on throughout the book (and possibly for several books before) and to which we had been given an implied promise of resolution very shortly. I’m not really encouraged to read any more of this series.
Grade: C
Summary:
Melanie Trenholm should be anticipating Christmas with nothing but joy–after all, it’s the first Christmas she and her husband, Jack, will celebrate with their twin babies. But the ongoing excavation of the centuries-old cistern in the garden of her historic Tradd Street home has been a huge millstone, both financially and aesthetically. Local students are thrilled by the possibility of unearthing more Colonial-era artifacts at the cistern, but Melanie is concerned by the ghosts connected to the cistern that have suddenly invaded her life and her house–and at least one of them is definitely not filled with holiday cheer….
And these relics aren’t the only precious artifacts for which people are searching. A past adversary is convinced that there is a long-lost Revolutionary War treasure buried somewhere on the property that Melanie inherited–untold riches rumored to be brought over from France by the Marquis de Lafayette himself and intended to help the Colonial war effort. It’s a treasure literally fit for a king, and there have been whispers throughout history that many have already killed–and died–for it. And now someone will stop at nothing to possess it–even if it means destroying everything Melanie holds dear.
Read an excerpt.
Other books in this series:
