A New Lease On Death by - ARC Review
A New Lease On Death
by Olivia Blacke
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Hmm, I'm not sure what chapter I'm on but it's not speaking to me much by page 48. They seem to be having some misunderstandings, but this may be getting cleared up as a clue just came up that the two deaths may be related. So far I think the author went too hard into the POV's were polar opposites.
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I think my last review strayed from what I wanted the summary to be so let's fix that. Here is a sum up of my thoughts on the book so you can continue to find out more details below or not.
The description sounded so fun, a ghost and the new unsuspecting roommate must team up to solve the death of their neighbor. While sure I get that they can be opposites the extent that it was pushed was a bit much. Some aspects of the book were well done and thoughtful. Then others treated the reader like a toddler who couldn’t read the room. In the end, this was just a slightly average read.
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The book takes place in Boston, MA. Particularly a small, maybe rough neighborhood where it seems crime isn’t too unusual. While all of this sounds perfectly reasonable to set a murder mystery investigation what lost me was what wasn’t there. From what little details were given this book could have taken place in any town that snowed during winter. The only time we got references to the fact it was Boston was when people were directly mentioning it. Atmospherically, we get that it is cold (a lot), people are rude or mostly ignore you on the bus, and most people seem to talk with a strong accent.
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This is listed as a paranormal mystery. One of our main characters is a ghost but she doesn’t know why so neither do we. That is the total of magic in this paranormal novel. There are ghosts in the world and some of the rules of what she can do are discovered.
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Probably this was my biggest complaint. By the end of the book, there was still no way they seemed to be able to communicate. I wanted to give this a pass for a good bit of the book. Thinking okay this is bordering on semirealistic where we can’t talk to ghosts either. But by the end, the best they got was an etch-a-sketch and Cordelia was exhausted.
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We are first introduced to the late Cordelia Graves. She was in her forties, tall and red-haired before she passed away. After a rough childhood, Cordelia preferred to keep to herself. In death, she finds that while she doesn’t want much company anyone to talk to would be preferable. Cordelia did love her plants though and kept several in her apartment.
Then there was Ruby Young, a twenty-year-old short brunette. She is bubbly and is a chatterbox. Ruby however just moved to Boston so has no job, money, or close friends nearby. She doesn’t mind talking to her neighbors but the age gaps aren’t making them close friends. Ruby seems smart and capable enough however this is never really shown.
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The biggest thing mentioned about both women a lot in the first several chapters was the differences in height and demeanor. That almost made me stop reading as how many times does Cordelia need to tell us that Ruby is so petite when she herself was not? Or how bubbly Ruby was to be around and she was not. It was not doing the characters or book any favors.
Ruby Young thought she was finally getting a new start moving into a furnished apartment. Sure it wasn’t in the best neighborhood, had questionable heating and the previous owner might still be haunting the place but a girl could do worse. When the life of the party neighbor also ends up dead on the sidewalk life starts to become a little more complicated. Cordelia Graves doesn’t believe this was a simple mugging gone wrong however being dead herself she can’t exactly speak to the victims' friends about it. To solve this murder they will have to work together even if communication might be an issue.
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While so many of the story elements were duds for me the big reveal of who was the murderer was a surprise. Being able to help bring said person to justice was just a lucky break for our characters though. It’s not that they weren’t somewhat trying, only that they were really bad at it. For the most part, I don’t think they figured anything out except that everyone loved Jake and he was a huge player. Then the “cliffhanger” moment that ended the book, was really obvious the whole way through. I have an idea of why it happened and will look it up after the next book is released. Overall though these two are not a good mystery duo so I’m not sure how they would continue a series.
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Well, I persevered after thinking I would sit this book to the side more than once. I can’t say I super enjoyed it or even that I get where the “cozy” mystery aspect was. After the initial eightyish pages though it wasn’t so bad. The idea had promise but the execution just didn’t work. Sad to say this will not be a new series for me to follow. Thank you so much to Netgalley for the review copy.
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