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Haunted Bookshop Mysteries Books In Order

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Publication Order of Haunted Bookshop Mystery Books

The Ghost and Mrs. McClure (2004)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Ghost and the Dead Deb (2005)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Ghost and the Dead Man's Library (2006)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Ghost and the Femme Fatale (2008)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Ghost and the Haunted Mansion (2009)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Ghost and the Bogus Bestseller (2018)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Ghost and the Haunted Portrait (2020)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Ghost and the Stolen Tears (2022)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Ghost Goes to the Dogs (2023)Description / Buy at Amazon

The Haunted Bookshop Mysteries series is a series of suspense, thriller, and cozy mystery books written by one of the well known authors from The United States named Alice Alfonsi. She collaborated with her author husband named Marc Cerasini for writing this series and used the pen name Alice Kimberly instead of her original name. The series is comprised of a total of a total of 6 books, which were released between the years 2004 and 2012. Each and every book of this series follows the events in the life of the chief character named Penelope Thorton-McClure, who lives in Rhode Island owns a bookshop. Her shop is believed to be haunted by the ghost of a private detective named Jack Shepard, who helps Penelope in solving all the mysteries that take place around her. The husband and wife authors pair began writing the series in the year 2004 and published the first book titled The Ghost and Mrs. McClure in the same year. Currently, the series is still going on as the authors are working on the plot development of the next novel in the series. Author Kimberly has described Penelope Thorton McClure are a widow living in Rhode Island. Her husband had died after committing suicide and after that, the young Penelope decided to move from New York City along with her son and go back to her small seaside hometown of New England called Quindicott in Rhode Island. When she arrives at the home of her aunt named Sadie Thornton in her hometown, she finds that her aunt is in some kind of financial problem. Due to this, she is about to lose her old family bookshop.

Penelope seems unwilling to let the business fail in her presence. Therefore, she encashes the life insurance money of her late husband and uses all of it to remodel the shop and put in a new stock of inventory. But, fate had something else planned for Penelope. During the reconstruction of the shop, a dead man’s spirit gets aroused. He is later learned to a private investigator hailing from New York, who was gunned down on the shop premises in the year 1949, while he was investigating a mysterious murder case. After waking up from the slumber of a half century, Jack Shepard, the PI, does not seem much thrilled when he finds that he is cosmically imprisoned in the walls of the bookshop of Penelope McClure. Jack Shepard’s life pounds for the rhythm of the streets of the city. He longs for the swinging suds clubs and the smoky joints. Jack wonders why was he not gunned down at a place like that. Now, being a spirit the only thing that makes his existence tolerable is Penelope McClure. In spite of finding her an annoying fair-play and do-right type of woman, Jack thinks that she has a sweet voice and a nice face. However, he also knows it very well that Penelope does not believe in the existence of ghosts. He too never believed in them when he was alive. But, now that he has himself turned into a ghost, he has no other option than believing in their existence. As a spirit, Jack Shepard finds it very difficult to live in this new world, which he does not seem to know at all. But, since the day Penelope has come into his life, he has started considering himself a lucky ghost. He can’t stop himself from watching Penelope over and over again.

One of the initial books of the Haunted Bookshop Mysteries series written by author Alice Kimberly is titled as ‘The Ghost And The Dead Man’s Library’. It was released by Berkeley in the year 2006. Author Kimberly has set the plot of the book in Quindicott, Rhode Island, and New York City, New York, The United States. At the beginning of the novel, it is shown that Jack Shepard did not have any use for the books when used to work as a private investigator and living well. And even after his death, he does not seem to have any interest in the dusty old crates of books that keep arriving at the bookshop he has been haunting. On the other hand, Penelope McClure seems extremely thrilled at their arrival. She comes to know that the rare old library called Poe has been willed to her bookshop by one of the elderly admirers of her aunt Sadie. Due to this, the library of the dead man is being shifted to Penelope’s bookshop. The collection of books arrived in the library is so rich that Penelope starts getting numerous astronomical offers for the various volumes of the newly arrived books. Everything seems to be going good until Penelope decides to sell the books one by one. She becomes extremely shocked after hearing that each of the buyer who she sold the books has died. When she tells the police that the shocking deaths are linked to the purchases of the rare books, they don’t believe in her theory. The police does not even consider the deaths as murders. But, Penelope is highly confident of her theory. So she decides to take the help of the friendly ghost, staying in her bookshop. She asks him to come out of rest and start searching for clues and help her solve the mystery behind the murders of her buyers. Penelope also tries to make sure that no other buyer gets killed by the Poe freak.

Another popular book released in the series is titled as ‘The Ghost And The Femme Fatale’. It is set in Maine, United States, and once again depicts Jack Sheperd and Pen McClure in the lead roles. At the beginning, it is shown that the first Film Noir Festival of The Town Movie Theater is getting organized and Penelope has been asked to handle the book sales for all the guest speakers. One of the important guests in the popular screen actress named Hedda Geist. She has been out of the spotlight for around several decades now. And the moment she decides to make a comeback, she gets nearly killed. Soon after, a number of other guests begin to get killed one after the other. Penelope decides to step into the matter and find out who is behind all the killings. At first, she tries to take the help of the local police, but they seem to be going on a wrong track. So, she is left with taking help from none other than her friendly ghost Jack Shepard. As Jack was a PI when he was alive and Hedda used to rule the film industry at that time, he knows many things about her dark past. Penelope seems pretty much confident that Jack can help her solve the mystery and bring back peace in the city.

Book Series In Order » Characters » Haunted Bookshop Mysteries

2 Responses to “Haunted Bookshop Mysteries”

  1. Betty: 2 years ago

    When will Haunted Bookshop Mystery #8 be out?

    Reply
    • Graeme: 2 years ago

      Hi Betty – it is currently scheduled for October, 2022.

      Reply

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