A New Lease on Death | Can’t-Wait Wednesday

Can’t Wait Wednesday is a weekly blogging link up hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings, inspired by Waiting on Wednesday by Breaking the Spine. Each week we shine the spotlight on a book that we are excited to read in the near future!

What is A New Lease on Death by Olivia Blacke About?

In this darkly funny supernatural mystery about an unlikely crime-solving duo that launches a commercial, unique, and genre-blending series, death is only the beginning.

Ruby Young’s new Boston apartment comes with all the usual perks. Windows facing the brick wall of the next-door building. Heat that barely works. A malfunctioning buzzer. Noisy neighbors. A dead body on the sidewalk outside. And of course, a ghost.

Since Cordelia Graves died in her apartment a few months ago, she’s kept up her residency, despite being bored out of her (non-tangible) skull and frustrated by her new roommate. When her across-the-hall neighbor, Jake Macintyre, is shot and killed in an apparent mugging gone wrong outside their building, Cordelia is convinced there’s more to it and is determined to bring his killer to justice.

Unfortunately, Cordelia, being dead herself, can’t solve the mystery alone. She has to enlist the help of the obnoxiously perky, living tenant of her apartment. Ruby is twenty, annoying, and has never met a houseplant she couldn’t kill. But she also can do everything Cordelia can’t, from interviewing suspects to researching Jake on the library computers that go up in a puff of smoke if Cordelia gets too close. The roommates form an unlikely friendship as they get closer to the truth about Jake’s death…and maybe other dangerous secrets as well. (from Amazon.com)

My Thoughts

I am newer to the paranormal cozy mystery world, but this just sounds delightful!

Humans and ghosts working together is always a delightful storyline. It reminds me of how in The Mediator Series by Meg Cabot, Suze has to help her bedroom ghost Jesse figure out who his murderer is. It makes for interesting situations because each of them has things they can do (and can’t do) which means that have to work together as a team.

I’m especially curious because depending on what age Cordelia was when she died, she and Ruby might have completely different ideas about how to live and how to get things done. The fact that Ruby can’t keep a houseplant alive is VERY relatable because I myself have accidentally killed many plants, including succulents.

(Please do not ask questions. It is a very sensitive subject for me)

An October release date sounds perfect for this story because I’m always in the mood to read paranormal stories leading up to Halloween.