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Bailey Ruth Books In Order

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Publication Order of Bailey Ruth Books

Ghost at Work (2008)Description / Buy at Amazon
Merry, Merry Ghost (2009)Description / Buy at Amazon
Ghost in Trouble (2010)Description / Buy at Amazon
Ghost Gone Wild (2013)Description / Buy at Amazon
Ghost Wanted (2014)Description / Buy at Amazon
Ghost to the Rescue (2015)Description / Buy at Amazon
Ghost Times Two (2016)Description / Buy at Amazon
Ghost on the Case (2017)Description / Buy at Amazon
Ghost Ups Her Game (2020)Description / Buy at Amazon
Ghost Blows a Kiss (2021)Description / Buy at Amazon

Mystery novels have contributed greatly to many facets of the entertainment industry. Many of these novels have been adapted for radio, TV and film. A great contributor to this genre is Carolyn Hart.
With a career spanning decades, this authoress has made her mark in the world of mystery novels. She has authored fifty six books. These consist of nineteen standalone books, twenty four books under the Death on Demand series, seven books under the Henry O. series and six books under the Bailey Ruth series.
Carolyn Hart began to enjoy commercial success with the Death on Demand series in 1987. Since then, she has gained recognition and has won a number of prestigious awards. The very first book of her Henry O. series, Dead Man’s Island, was adapted into a TV movie of the same name.
The Bailey Ruth (Series by Carolyn G. Hart) is the most recent addition to the vast body of work created by this authoress. The series features Carolyn’s newest protagonist, Bailey Ruth Raeburn.

The Bailey Ruth Series
The Bailey Ruth series is a set of mystery novels featuring Bailey Ruth Raeburn, a feisty heroine who is a detective. She also happens to be dead.
As an agent of Heaven’s department of good intentions, she is given assignments that require her to take care of people in her home town who are in need of help. Using her detective skills, she takes up her assignments with enthusiasm and a little mischief. She manages to close her cases while making the reader laugh as she learns to use her supernatural powers with some disregard to heaven’s standard operating procedures.
Bailey Ruth has completed six assignments so far, with each assignment described in its own page turner. The first book in the series, titled “Ghost at Work” was released in 2008. The latest book in the series is titled “Ghost To The Rescue” and was published in June 2015

Who is Bailey Ruth Raeburn?
Bailey Ruth was born in Adelaide Oklahoma. She had a near-death experience in her youth when she fell off an excursion boat and into the sea. Thanks to the daring rescue effort of a sailor, Bailey Ruth’s life was saved.
She grew up to marry her sweetheart Bobby Mac and have two children. Bailey liked to keep herself occupied, so she worked at the Adelaide chamber of commerce and was an active member of her church. Her skills as a home maker, a professional and an active church member serve Bailey in good stead throughout the series.
When she was in her mid fifties, Bailey Ruth was caught in a storm along with her husband and perished at sea. The couple went to heaven where Bailey currently volunteers at the Department of Good Intentions, to repay the good turn that was done to her by the sailor who saved her life in her youth.
She gets assignments to go back to earth as a detective, specifically her home town of Adelaide, to help those who might need help. She chooses to inhabit her twenty-something old body and has endless fun dressing to the nines.
She may be a ghost, but Bailey has more life in her than most of the living. She tackles her assignments with a zest for life and a disregard for the heavenly rules for earthly visitation, and hilarity ensues. Bailey materializes in the presence of mortals when she shouldn’t. She hasn’t really gotten used to her supernatural capabilities at the outset of the series and her lack of experience is guaranteed to give a good laugh.

Bailey Ruth’s first assignment
Bailey’s very first assignment is described in rib-cracking detail in the first book of the series titled “Ghost at Work”. She is sent on assignment before she has studied the heavenly precepts for working on earth, heaven’s Operating Procedures for its agents. The book offers a lot in the way of laughs, but it is also a mystery novel filled with suspense and challenging puzzles.
Our lively ghost is assigned to Kathleen, a pastor’s wife, who finds a body at her doorstep on Halloween. The damning location of the body is sure to implicate Kathleen’s husband, the pastor. Bailey sets out to solve the mystery in order to absolve the pastor of the crime and also helps Kathleen to piece her family back together. All the while, Bailey Ruth takes liberties with the heavenly rules that she is supposed to abide by. She makes herself known to the mortal Sam Cobb, the Adelaide police chief, and assists him with his investigations.
The story moves along at a good pace and keeps the reader interested up until the end. Subsequent books in the series only get better.

Bailey Ruth In “Merry Merry Ghost”
Merry Merry Ghost is the second book in the Bailey Ruth series. The events of the book take place during the Christmas holidays, because the book was slotted for release during the Christmas holidays of 2009.
For her second assignment, Bailey is sent to the aid of Susan Pritchard Flynn, a wealthy but dying woman who has had her fair share of heartbreak. Susan is dying of heart failure. She has no heirs descended from her, since all her children are now dead. Those who stand to inherit her fortune are her husband’s relatives, the only family she has left.
Things change for her in-laws, especially for her sister-in-law Jake, when a four year old boy named Keith appears. He turns out to be the child of Susan’s estranged son who is an Iraq war veteran that has been missing for years. Keith now stands to inherit everything.
At first, Bailey’s assignment is to keep grandmother and grandson alive through the Christmas holidays, which is no mean task given the inheritance issues that have come up. Bailey’s assignment unfortunately turns into a murder investigation and the book becomes a fast-paced mystery novel which is hard to figure out and hard to put down.
The book blends the levity of Bailey’s entertaining personality with an interesting and challenging murder mystery. The characters in the book add context to the murder mystery as their personalities, motivations and motives are explored. Like in the first book, police chief Sam Cobb features in the murder investigation and is assisted yet again by Bailey.

Is the Bailey Ruth Series worth a read?
Absolutely. In a genre filled with great books, the Bailey Ruth series holds its own among the best mystery novels. It manages to capture readers’ attention with a challenging “whodunnit” mystery that keeps the reader guessing. The Bailey Ruth series is also unique because of the levity of the books even as a crime is solved.
What could be better than reading a murder mystery where the detective constantly reminds us that death is not the absolute end?

Book Series In Order » Characters » Bailey Ruth

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