Return of the Haunted Bookshop Mysteries

Why We Re-Opened Our Haunted Bookshop by Cleo Coyle

Back in 2004, my husband and I published our very first Haunted Bookshop Mystery, The Ghost and Mrs. McClure. Sound familiar? That is by design, because one of my favorite ghost stories of all time inspired my vision for the series, and I wanted everyone to know where my inspiration came from: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, originally published in 1945.

If you are familiar with that particular ghost story, then you know it is not a murder mystery, not even close. But in that tale, I saw the seeds for another. An earnest widow haunted by a gruff male ghost might just work as a dynamic sleuthing pair. And so…

With my husband as co-writer, we set out to develop that basic concept into an entertaining series of cozy murder mysteries. It was a risky idea back then. But with some hard work and imaginative thinking, we did it. We created our own unique Haunted Bookshop world with all its quirky characters and colorful details, and it paid off as a smashing success. Every one of our Haunted Bookshop Mysteries became a national bestseller.

And then, after five years of writing our series, Marc and I decided to put it on hiatus. The decision may seem like an odd one, because the series was doing so well, but at that time (2009), the book business was reeling. A digital revolution had shaken the trade. Nearly everyone, from publishing CEOs to authors and booksellers, began openly speculating whether bookstores (like the one run by our amateur sleuth) would survive much longer. Some even believed that print books would disappear in a mere ten years! We had no crystal ball, and we could not predict whether our “bookshop” stories would make sense in a world that had no physical books or bookshops. So, we took a step back and focused instead on writing our bestselling Coffeehouse Mysteries.

Fast-forward to today, and we know three things are true. (1) Unlike our ghost, print books are still very much alive. (2) Bookstores (thank goodness) are far from dead, and (3) our readers sorely missed our series! Their emails, messages, and comments on posts made that clear enough. We expected their feelings to subside over time, but they never did. And since we missed our Haunted Bookshop world as much as they did, we asked our publisher if they would support our decision to make our ghost reappear. As you can see, they gave us a big, fat YES, and we are grateful for their belief in us.

We are even more grateful to our loyal readers, who waited so long for our Jack to come back. And who is “our Jack”? He is the wisecracking spirit of a hard-boiled private investigator who met his end while pursuing a lead in a case—a lead that took him from his dingy New York office to a quaint Rhode Island bookshop—the very shop now owned by our amateur sleuth, Penelope Thornton-McClure, a young widow who is trying her level best to raise a little boy on her own. (Jack occasionally helps with that, too.)

Gradually, the gumshoe ghost became Penelope’s invisible best friend and a handy advisor when big-city crimes come to Pen’s small town—and what a charming town it is. Quindicott is far less posh than nearby Newport, but its residents have created a neighborly community, making it a remarkably pleasant place to live, even if you happen to be dead.

We now invite you to join our earnest bookseller and her hardboiled ghost as they solve their latest mystery in The Ghost and the Haunted Portrait. This is the seventh book in our series, but you can jump right in. We write every book as a stand-alone so that new readers will not be lost. And if you enjoy our latest, you have six more titles to explore. Here they are in order. May they lift your own spirits!

The Ghost and Mrs. McClure
The Ghost and the Dead Deb
The Ghost and the Dead Man’s Library
The Ghost and the Femme Fatale
The Ghost and the Haunted Mansion
The Ghost and the Bogus Bestseller

And our newest release…

The Ghost and the Haunted Portrait

CLEO COYLE is a pseudonym for Alice Alfonsi, writing in collaboration with her husband, Marc Cerasini. Both are New York Times bestselling authors of the Coffeehouse Mysteries, now celebrating eighteen years in print, three starred reviews, and multiple Best of Year lists. Alice and Marc are also bestselling media tie-in writers who have penned properties for Lucasfilm, NBC, Fox, Disney, Imagine, and MGM. They live and work in New York City, where they write independently and together, including the nationally bestselling Haunted Bookshop Mysteries, recently honored with a Best of Year selection by Suspense Magazine.

Visit Cleo’s website: HauntedBookshopMysteries.com
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Follow Cleo on Facebook and Twitter
Follow Jack Shepard (The Ghost) on his Facebook Page

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