Dead Man Talking (Pepper Martin Mysteries, No. 5)

Pepper gets into another wild adventure with a reality based show coming to Garden View cemetary called Cemetary Survivor. The Monroe Street cemetary is being restored and Pepper is put over being a team captain. Her team is former prisoners on parole and they have to help her. Of course there are quirky personalities and problems, and to top it off a persistant ghost demanding of Peppers' time. This ghost claimed he was framed and put in prision unjustly and wants Pepper to clear his name. As Pepper gets into his case files and starts investigating trouble starts. Eventually old wounds are opened and it causes alot of waves. In addition her love life seems to be floundering after she tells Quinn the truth about why she gets into so many scrapes...

Casey Daniels' DEAD MAN TALKING provides a fine Pepper Martin mystery featuring a spunky girl who tries to help with a restoration project, only to learn a contest to restore the cemetery grounds lead to a local reality show and certain danger with a ghost involved. A fine pick for lending libraries strong in murder mysteries.

Casey Daniels is getting more comfortable with her characters and giving them even more dimension. This installment of the series finds Pepper in the midst of a "reality style" television show, where two teams are competing to fix up sections of a dilapidated cemetery. Pepper is hoping to have the "ladies who lunch" on her reality team, but she soon discovers she is to lead a group of recently released convicts. To make matters worse, she is being haunted by a former prison warden who says he was framed for the murder of a young girl. The murder happened over twenty years previously, and the warden wants Pepper to find the real killer so he can rest. Quinn makes another appearance, and there are some surprises to the relationship.

"Dead Man Talking" is the fifth Pepper Martin mystery. The series follows an ex-socialite whose family is suddenly in disgrace (her father is actually in jail) and Pepper must work to make a living for herself. She finds herself getting a job in a cemetary. After a konk on the head she can suddenly see and communicate with...tada! Ghosts!. My favorite things about this series to date has been the interactions with Pepper and her ghosts...and the fact that Pepper just has a huge heart. She is very impetuous and doesn't think dangerous things through but she sure does what she does with her own type of flair. I actually wasn't as impressed by the fourth book as I was by the first three and I was more than pleases to see that "Dead Man Talking" had all the great traits as the first three. Plus I could really root for the ghost in this book as well and that was hard to impossible in book four "Night Of the Loving Dead" Here Pepper is faced with a ghost who hasn't been murdered, like most of her previous customers. This man claims he was framed for the murder of his young and pretty co-worker. So that he can rest in peace and so that his wife (who is still alive)can have closure. Complicating (or rather making this story an absolute win!) is a plot that sees Pepper restoring a nearby cemetary in a reality tv show called "Cemetary Survivor". One team is made up of the town's social elite. The other is a group of parolees who have to do the show as part of their parole arrangements. Guess which team Pepper is put in charge of? It is a riot seeing Pepper work with and come to know the group of outcast parolees. I must go ahead and say right here that I hope they show up again in the series from time to time, they were all too great to say goodbye to! The mystery was well done and it isn't immediately known who the murderer is...but the best part of the Pepper series still remains Pepper herself. If you haven't read one of these books before, go ahead and treat yourself!

Terrific continuation of the Pepper Martin series. Nice action, great characters. I really enjoy this series.