Stalking the Dead

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By E.C. Bell

Publisher Description

Marie Jenner is going home.

When Marie's slightly-more-than-boss, James Lavall, decides it is vital that he speak to her mother, face to face, about Marie and all her secrets, she follows him to Fort McMurray to make certain that he doesn't learn everything about her life before Edmonton.

What Marie doesn't realize is that her stalkery ex-boyfriend, Arnie Stillwell, has gone home, too. And he's managed to get himself killed, just about the time James rolled into town, making James "a person of interest" in the Stillwell murder investigation.

Marie's going to have to figure out who really killed Arnie to get James off. She's also going to have to figure out a safe way to move Arnie's spirit on to the next plane of existence, because the last thing she needs is for him to go all stalkery on her now that he's dead.

Murder can really put a kink in a Jenner family reunion.

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1 Review

4.0

talenawinters

Created over 3 years ago

“3.5 out of 5, but still a recommended read. Summary: 5/5 for Characterization, Voice, Pacing and overall writing 4/5 for Plot 3.5/5 for editing (for a timeline issue as well as an overabundance of commas) I want to say first of all that, like the two books before this in the series, I read this entire book in a single day. This is the norm for some people, but not me. As always with Ms. Bell's books, the story grabbed me from the first page and I didn't want to stop reading until I'd reached the very satisfactory ending. One of the absolute best parts of Ms. Bell's writing is the voice. Like the books before, the story is told from two character POVs - Marie's and the ghost of the victim of the murder. You don't end up murdered for being a nice person (usually), and that's true of Arnie, the ghost, Marie's stalker ex-boyfriend. I never fell in like with Arnie, which is as it should be, but I thought he was extremely well-written and kind of geeked out over the writing, to be honest. That goes hand in hand with the characters. The cast in the book is fantastic, and it was nice to finally meet Marie's mom. As others have noted, it would have been nice to see more of James Lavall, but this book was more about Marie's personal baggage (and she does have Baggage with a capital B), so the absence isn't glaring. The plot and setting both had a couple of minor issues, IMO. Plot: While I personally love the focus on Marie working through some of her issues, it did come at a bit of a sacrifice of the mystery elements of the story. I didn't know who the killer was from the beginning, but there weren't really any red herrings thrown in as viable alternatives and it is obvious from early on who it is. In this sense, the mystery is a bit more of a "how will Marie find out the truth" than a "whodunnit", which is fine. But it would have been nice to have a bit more suspense as far as what repercussions there might be for others whom the police suspect. As far as setting, this is a minor thing, but Fort McMurray is constantly referred to as a small town, and in one place, as a very tiny town. It's a city of 66,000 people. I grew up in an actual small town near Red Deer, AB, which is a city of about the same size, and currently live near another small town north of Grande Prairie, AB, which is a city of almost identical size and about the same latitude and attitude. Yes, there are certain "small-town" aspects of small cities, especially in the north, because you tend to run into people you know, especially when you frequent the same establishments. But I felt painting it this way gave it an almost "one-horse town" feel, which is unfair to actual small towns and paints Fort McMurray as a smaller city than it actually is. That being said, Ms. Bell's knowledge of actual locations and her depiction of Fort McMurray as a city that never sleeps with a constant rush hour down Franklin Ave (which I assume is due to the shift-work nature of the oil patch) is a delightful support to the story. Editing—the final bit. When a book is this well-written, I don't like to mention the editing. But, on the other hand, a book this well-written deserves the best editing possible so the reader can be fully immersed in the story. And there were two aspects of the story that got in the way of total immersion for me. First, there was a minor-ish timeline issue in the plot, wherein everyone woke up, Marie went and did a thing, and when she got back, she had to wake everyone up again. Probably got missed in revisions, but made me flip around a few pages trying to figure out what had happened there. Second: Someone, somewhere in the process of editing this book is in love with commas. Like, a LOT. As you can see, I'm not comma-averse, myself, but there were commas where a comma never has any business being. It was consistent throughout the book, and, in fact, the series so far, so I know this is a deliberate style choice. While there were vocative commas (which were also usually unnecessary), I'm not talking about those but some weird comma style rule that must be followed by this house. At any rate, I normally try not to let stuff like this bother me because hey, everyone has their style preferences, but there were enough sentences chopped up this way for no good reason that it was a repeated bee in my bonnet. And even though I read pell-mell to the end, knowing I'd have to subject myself to another swarm of unnecessary commas to get through the next story is giving me pause about diving into the next book. I need some recovery time first. I know this says more about my sensitivity to grammar rules than anything (I am an editor and a writer, after all), and it's definitely not going to prevent me from reading on in the series because I just love it that much. But it's worth noting and mentioning because I'd really love to see a future revision where this issue is taken care of. Or, at the very least, where new books being released don't put commas in front of every "if" just because (as one example). Anyway, overall, a thoroughly enjoyable read with plenty to love. I have no regrets spending a summer Saturday between these pages. Recommended.”