Dog Days

May 15, 2024
The manager of the guest house in a town of spiritualists may fit in better when her dead husband reaches out to her. On the way back from her former mother-in-law's wedding in Chicago, Bella Jordan swears she sees Sam, her dead husband. Is she overtired and overwhelmed, or is there something more at play? Seeing someone who's passed away might be normal in Lily Dale, where Bella's adopted neighbors and friends are spiritualists and mediums all connected to the supernatural through a phenomenon the citizens call Spirit rather than ghosts or apparitions. But Bella isn't part of Lily Dale's history. And though she still feels a strong connection to Sam, especially through their young son, Max, she has no history of seeing the dead. She returns to Lily Dale unsure what to make of her sighting but too distracted by what's been going on in her absence to dwell on it. Bella's love interest, local vet Dr. Drew Bailey, has been taking care of the Valley View guest house in her absence as well as a new litter of puppies Max has been asking to keep as pets along with Chance and Spidey, their cats. As she explains that the guest house can have only so many pets, Bella also tries to help her hippie neighbor Misty Starr navigate a separation from Misty's nonspiritual husband and ponders how to explain it all to Misty's son, Jiffy, a troublemaker and a smart one. No sooner does she feel as if she's got everything under control than Sam texts her, apparently from beyond the grave, and Bella has to figure out whether she's finally seeing the dead or something more nefarious is in play. Lots to dig into, though the mysteries take second place to the comings and goings of the townsfolk.

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June 20, 2024
After losing her husband and her home, widow Bella Jordan and her young son end up in Lily Dale, "the World's Largest Center for the Religion of Spiritualism," in western New York, where she runs the Valley View Inn. At the airport on her way home from Chicago, she and her son see her late husband, Sam, but he disappears before she can confront him. Although she believes Sam is dead, a message to a medium purportedly from Sam, text messages from him, and additional sightings have Bella wondering who is playing a trick on her, and she begins to waver. Is Sam really dead? Complicating matters, items are missing from her best friend, Misty's, home, Misty's son is acting oddly, and Bella has feelings for handsome veterinarian Drew. The lovingly described, quirky, small-town setting, where many of the residents can talk to the dead; sympathetic, well-delineated characters; and a plot that centers on Bella's life make up for a somewhat disappointing mystery, the latest in the Lily Dale series (after The Stranger Vanishes, 2022).

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.