Ghost a la Mode

It's tough trying to clear your name. Especially when you're dead. "Ghost Ala Mode: A Ghost of Granny Apples Mystery" is the story of a Ghost of a Grandmother and her great great great granddaughter Emma, as they try to put to rest the claim that Granny Apples murdered her husband all those years ago. Tortured by her unjust rap, Granny Apples only wants her name to be cleared, and the Ghost's desire makes for an intriguing and highly original mystery.

If you are looking for a great mystery with a different voice, this is a book for you. The writing draws you in and winds around you until you are totally immersed in the wonderful tale. start reading for a good mystery and find yourself laughing and engrossed. Buy and enjoy!

After four successful Odelia Grey mysteries, Sue Ann Jaffarian has turned from the paralegal to the paranormal in her new Ghost of Granny Apples series. And while her characters are fresh and unusual, they are every bit as fascinating and likable. With her divorce nearly final and her daughter about to leave for college, forty-something Emma Whitecastle is at loose ends. So when an old girlfriend begs Emma to join her at a séance, as part of a research project, she accepts. At the séance, Clairvoyant Milo Ravenscroft tells Emma that a ghost from her family's past needs her help - a woman who was hanged for murder. At first Emma laughs at the idea, wondering what kind of scam the man is running. But when she suddenly starts craving apple pie and her father admits that her three-times-great grandmother - executed for killing her husband - once lived in the apple-growing town of Julian, Emma is unnerved. But it's a visit from Granny Apples' ghost - insisting that she's innocent - that convinces Emma to investigate the murder. What she discovers as she digs into Julian's history stirs up a hornet's nest of ghosts and villains who want Emma dead and gone. Jaffarian's talent for writing intriguing plots and cliffhanger chapters excels in the new series, and her vivid scenes of ghostly appearances and conversations are imaginative and often hilarious. There's even a touch of romance. Granny Apples is just what the doctor ordered.

I bought the book because I love Odelia and wanted to see how a "new" character and book would be. After the first chapter I was hooked! I even finished reading the last few pages at work. I knew it would bother me to wait until lunch to finish it! The characters in the book become real - I love this as much (or more) than her other books!

I have to admit upfront that I'm not a big fan of ghosts or paranormal stories. They just aren't usually my thing, but I'm a huge Odelia Gray fan and would follow Sue Ann Jaffarian's writing anywhere. So I was pleasantly surprised to really like Emma Whitecastle. I like that she's a single mom who's middle-aged and trying to figure her life out. She's somewhat at the mercy of her parents and her famous ex-husband, but over the course of the book, starts to stand up for herself, with a little help from her many years dead great-great-great grandmother Granny Apples, aka Ish Reynolds, who she barely knows anything about at the beginning of the book. When Emma finds herself craving apple pie (what Granny Apples is known for) and feeling a chill in the air, she comes to realize, albeit reluctantly, that her ancestor needs her help, and, more importantly, deserves it, having gone down in history for murdering her husband, which she insists she didn't do. Jaffarian weaves history and mystery together beautifully as Emma first gets accustomed to seeing ghosts, then has to figure out which are friendly and which aren't. Combine that with a spooky cemetery and some determined gold-diggers, and Emma's in danger, though she keeps poking and poking. She befriends a man who at first is wary of her, and Jaffarian weaves their budding romance into this historical whodunit. Once again, Jaffarian takes characters who aren't always heard from in our society (even though Granny Apples is actually fairly young, I couldn't help picturing her as elderly since she's been dead over a hundred years), such as those getting divorced, and turns them into intriguing characters I look forward to reading more about. Her note at the end of the book letting readers know they can take their own tour of Julian, California, the setting for Ghost a la Mode, adds a fun footnote. Perhaps what's most impressive is that Jaffarian makes her ghostly characters as varied and fascinating as her living ones. We don't get to meet them for long stretches of time (they have to "recharge") but, coming from another era, give a little insight into what life was like at the time. The family dynamics here are also interesting as Emma grapples with being close to her parents while not following their advice to the letter. Seeing how Granny Apples interacts with Emma, their similarities and differences, as well as their struggles, was also a great delight in this mystery. Emma is also different enough from Odelia Gray to make this series stand out on its own.