Cordelia finds her neighbor, Jake, murdered in front of their apartment building. He is outside in the snowy Boston weather with no shoes or coat on. Cordelia wants to investigate but unfortunately she is also dead. Cordelia has to enlist the help of the new resident of her apartment, the annoying Ruby, to do all the hard questioning of suspects. Can this unusual duo work together to find out what happened to Jake? Will both women get A New Lease on Death after realizing that ghosts are definitely real?
I love the idea of combining a ghost story with an amateur detective tale. However, the mechanics of what Cordelia can still do and how she communicates with the living are clunky at best and distracting at worst. Hopefully, this is just an issue with this introductory book in what is obviously intended to be new cozy paranormal mystery series. I did spend the entire book missing the easy camaraderie of Sarah Booth Delaney and Jitney. Even the flirty mystique of 1940s Private Investigator Jack Shepard and his human foil, Pen, of the Haunted Bookshop series seemed more believable to me than the dynamic here.
Overall, A New Lease on Death is a fun cozy mystery, but the pacing is slowed by the task of introducing all the characters. The two main characters’ many insecurities were annoying, rather than endearing, too. 3 stars.
Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for providing me with an advanced review copy.