The Haunted Heist

I adore cozy mysteries, love gripping suspense and totally addicted to anything supernatural but throw in a little sweet romance and I'm totally smitten! Sadly, it's often difficult to find all four elements in one book but fortunately, I've found an author that brilliantly combines them all into one exceptional story. Angie Fox has delighted her readers yet again with The Haunted Heist, the third standalone release in the Southern Ghost Hunters Mysteries Series and I totally loved it! This story is imaginative, unique, exciting, cute, sweet, heartwarming, well crafted and well edited with a beautiful, eye-catching cover. The narrative is exceptionally well written in the first person from the perspective of the heroine Verity Long. The dialogue is smart, well executed and flows effortlessly. I love all the components of this story but it's the characters that completely steal the show. They are fascinating, captivating, realistic, engaging, relatable and humorous. Fox skillfully combines these elements to craft a deliciously cute and delightfully entertaining whodunit filled to the brim with danger, drama, action, mystery, suspense, humor, ghosts and even a little heartbreaking angst and heartwarming romance. Life has been nothing but difficult during the last several months for beautiful aspiring graphic designer Verity Long. She's lost absolutely everything after breaking off her engagement with her cheating, now ex-fiance Beau Wydell, youngest and favored son of wealthy, influential town aristocrat Virginia Wydell. Her graphic design services had been in demand until her almost mother-in-law used her influence to ruin her and her business. Now it seems no one in Sugarland other than her best friend Lauralee, and her almost, still-figuring-it-out, sort-of boyfriend, Ellis Wydell wants to have anything to do with her. And yes, Ellis and Beau are related - they're brothers! Huh? Oh yes, brothers! And let's not forget her sweet little pet skunk Lucy and her very dead, black and white gangster ghost housemate, Frankie. Yup, I said ghost who has become trapped on Verity's property when she unknowingly dumped the ashes from his urn onto the roots of her rose bush. Oh my! After all, she had no idea what they were and what would happen. And now, she's stuck with a not so nice criminal from the flapper era, no money, no job and no prospects - until her bestie, Lauralee rides to the rescue with a potential job offer from her Uncle Reggie Thompson, the new president of the First Sugarland Bank. Maybe things are finally looking up for Verity. Or not! Just when it looks like she may have the job in the bag, Reggie Thompson is called away and murdered in the vault right in the middle of his meeting with Verity! Oh no! Oh yes! And Verity may be a suspect since this is the second murder scene at which she has been present in the same number of months. Last time, her involvement almost cost her life and would have, had it not been for help from her ghost pal, Frankie and handsome law enforcement officer, Ellis Wydell. Nope, she's not getting involved - not again! But it is her best and only friend's uncle and naturally, she'd do anything for sweet Lauralee. But Verity's luck maymay finally have run out this time when a killer sets their deadly sights on her - again. Oh goodness! Will Verity be able to discover the identity of the murderer before it's too late? We'll see!

I’m not sure why I put off reading The Haunted Heist for so long. I guess I just wasn’t in the mood for a cozy mystery? Regardless, I felt guilty staring at it in my NetGalley queue, so I bit the bullet and started reading.

This is the third in a series and I haven’t read any of the previous books. Unfortunately for me, that meant the first chapter was full if info dumping to catch me up on what I missed in books 1 and 2.

I read 99% of this book via text-to-speech (aka, listening to a semi-robotic voice read to me while I did other things, like exercise or fold laundry). Text-to-speech is great for multitasking, but I know I missed some things along the way, but it didn’t hurt the story for me.

I like the main character, Verity Long. She doesn’t want to have the ghost of an old mobster hanging around, but she’s stuck with him. (I’d have to go read the first books to find out exactly why, see the paragraph above!) The ghost, Frankie, was a blast. Seriously, his questionable morals and zero filter made the book.

This story revolves around Verity trying to get a job doing marketing work for the bank, but instead she finds herself at a crime scene. Sounds like this is something that happens to her fairly regularly.

I loved the subplot with sexy cop Ellis—and his overbearing mother who hates her. Apparently, Verity was supposed to marry Ellis’s brother, but she left him. It sounds like their Facebook relationship status should be ‘It’s Complicated’ because it is. But they’re soooon cute together!

So, basically, after a rocky start, I enjoyed this story full of southern charm and ghosts. I was never completely hooked, but as I said above, I just haven’t been in the mood for a cozy mystery, so I think that detracted from some of the enjoyment for this book.

If you’re into cozy mysteries, go pick up this series. It’s a cute, quick read, and book one is currently FREE on Amazon (and maybe other retailers?) at the time of this review posting.

Verity Long is at it again in Angie Fox's third installment of the Southern Ghost Hunter series. As with her other books, Fox has a great way of painting a picture and immersing her readers into Verity's world. For some reason the way that she cuddles her skunk, Lucy, makes me want to get my own skunk even though I know that would be ridiculous, and I would love to have my own Frankie, even if he is annoying at best.
In this latest installment, the story begins with Verity meeting with her best friend Lauralee and Lauralee's Uncle Reggie, who has taken over Sugarland Bank. He wants to do advertising for the bank, and Verity offers up her graphic design services to him. She makes an appointment to meet Reggie at the bank. While Verity is there, Reggie is murdered in the vault, leading her on the hunt for his killer, which may or may not be a violent and very dead hitman from the 1920s.
The story is full of action, and we get to learn a little bit more about Frankie when Ellis and Verity unearth a speakeasy (with Frankie’s help) directly beneath the Southern Spirits kitchen. We get to meet Frankie’s gangster friends in what is a very humorous interaction between Frankie, Verity and Ellis that ends with a ghostly car chase. We also get to meet Frankie’s best friend Suds, who has been trying to break into the bank’s vault since the 1920s via an underground tunnel. This tunnel, Suds and Frankie may help Verity get out of the inevitable bind she always seems to finds herself in.
I pride myself on being a good detective when reading mystery series, and in every one of her books in I have been surprised with who ends up being the killer in the end, Haunted Heist being no different. It is a very entertaining and well-written story, with a little romance thrown in.
*I was provided ARC in exchange for an honest review.