On the HahaFiction shelf
The Ghost and the Dead Librarian
A Haunted Bookshop Detective Mystery · Book 1 · 2026
Audiobook available · 9 hr 37 min
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.
From the publisher’s blurb
“with the help of a wisecracking, 1940s gumshoe ghost”Read the full description at Kensington Cozies
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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.
A few distinguishing details
- A ghost who shelves noir in the cozy section
- Detective lessons through dreams of 1940s cases
More funny amateur sleuth
Sources & further reading
- Publisher catalog
Publisher
- Audiobook publisher listing
Publisher
- Audiobook review
Review
- Criminal Element review
Review
- Publisher
Publisher
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