# The Ghost and the Dead Librarian

By Cleo Coyle · A Haunted Bookshop Detective Mystery, book 1

Profile: https://hahafiction.com/books/the-ghost-and-the-dead-librarian-4d8d0e69/

A librarian who collected obituaries turns up dead in Pen Thornton-McClure’s bookstore, with her own obituary nearby. Pen doubts the apparent suicide. Helping her investigate is Jack Shepard, a private eye from the 1940s whose death has done little to quiet him.

## What makes it funny?

Jack reorganizes the shop to suit himself, moving noir novels into the cozy section and irritating Pen. His taste in books is only one intrusion: the wisecracking ghost also has plenty to say inside his living partner’s head.

### The comedy at work

Jack brings a hardboiled detective’s manner to Pen’s contemporary bookstore. Their flirtatious mental exchanges let his old-fashioned private-eye swagger interrupt the work of a modern amateur sleuth, whether she wants his commentary or not.

### Try this if…

Bookstore-mystery readers with a taste for old detective stories get more than a ghostly sidekick here. Jack takes Pen through his 1940s cases in dreams, teaching investigative techniques as they work on her present-day puzzle.

### Good to know

This relaunch continues the earlier Haunted Bookshop stories and their established partnership; Criminal Element’s reviewer found it accessible to newcomers. Suicide and mental-health struggles figure in the case.

## What to expect

- Genre: Fantasy · Mystery
- On the shelf: Amateur sleuth · Cozy mystery · Paranormal mystery
- Kind of humor: Banter
- Story ingredients: Supernatural detective
- Format: Novel
- Length: 384 pages
- Audiobook: 9 hr 37 min
- Published: 2026

## A few distinguishing details

- A ghost who shelves noir in the cozy section
- Detective lessons through dreams of 1940s cases

## Sources & further reading

- Publisher: [Publisher catalog](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/770853/the-ghost-and-the-dead-librarian-by-cleo-coyle)
- Publisher: [Audiobook publisher listing](https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/book/895309)
- Review: [Audiobook review](https://bonesandbookspines.wordpress.com/2026/09/23/the-ghost-and-the-dead-librarian-arc-review)
- Review: [Criminal Element review](https://www.criminalelement.com/book-review-the-ghost-and-the-dead-librarian-by-cleo-coyle)
- Publisher: [Publisher](https://www.kensingtonbooks.com/shop/the-ghost-and-the-dead-librarian-9781496749338)