16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Cute Cozy, February 18, 2008
This review is from: Ghost of a Chance (Mass Market Paperback)
Ghost of a Chance by Kate Marsh (aka Katie MacAlister) turned out to be a nice little cozy mystery read. Full of action from beginning to end this book is anything but boring. I found it to closely resemble the Clue game from my childhood with all the "Who Could Have Done Its".
Karma Marx is young, pretty, otherworldly, and married to the biggest snake around. If you want to talk about bad luck or no luck then just ask Karma which one she might have. Karma is as Karma does, unpredictable to the max, she has the most lively life I've ever read about. Yes some of us don't have a life but Karma makes up for that with having the activity of probably 5 people. Better known as a ghostbuster, Karma is the death squad of the otherworld. Unfortunately for her she has a concience about killing and an infinity for collecting the unknown. It really is adorable.
There are many characters that make up this story and they are all very good. Some characters are adorable, huggable and you just want to use them for a teddy bear while others are leacherous snakes. It doesn't take long to find out which is which in this story.
I couldn't figure out who did it til the end which I really loved. Most stories give you such a strong hint in the beginning that you can't help but guess the right villian before you make it half way through the book.
I say "Kudo's" to Kate Marsh for a wonderful start to something wonderfully fresh and exciting for the paranormal world. This was a very energetic fast read that makes you want another as soon as you finish it. I do hope our author will continue on with this delightful storyline.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Willingly Suspending Disbelief, February 28, 2008
This review is from: Ghost of a Chance (Mass Market Paperback)
Sometimes, in order to enjoy a book, it's necessary to suspend disbelief. For Ghost of a Chance, I'd recommend tying disbelief to a construction crane, and hauling it up about 13 stories, where it can dangle overhead while you enjoy this completely delightful mystery.
Karma Marx cleans houses for a living. Only there's not a mop or a spray bottle of vinegar to be seen. Her work is a little more specialized. She rids houses of otherworld spirits. According to the instructions given to her as a transmortis anomaly exterminator, she's supposed to banish intruders to the Akashic Plain, where they will suffer perpetual torment. But Karma, being a kind soul, has only been able to bring herself to impose the banishment once or twice, to really nasty beings who had it coming.
She sneaks the other miscreants home with her. She has an obsessive-compulsive Russian domovoi (a house spirit). She keeps an agoraphobic Roman goddess of door hinges and thresholds in the pantry, a vegetable spirit in the lettuce keeper, a bunch of imps who should be in the silver drawer but aren't--and a husband who will hit the roof if he finds any of these unwanted house guests.
Said sleazy husband makes Karma an offer: rid a house he's just bought of its current infestations (it's reputed to be the most haunted house in the Olympic Peninsula) and he won't contest the divorce that Karma so desperately wants. Simple enough, except . . .
The two-hour job turns into a lock-down. A malevolent (or is he?) poltergeist named Adam Dirgesinger, seals Karma, a sulky Goth teen-ager, and assorted spirits and humans, in the house. They're all going to be there for twelve hours--except the ones who turn up dead, of course.
Ghost of a Chance is part locked-house mystery, part romance, and part screamingly funny look at a world where Karma's lettuce bin talks back to her. By the end of the book, you'll be willing to believe that Karma's world is the real one and ours is ho-hum by comparison. But take heed: this book is like popcorn. You won't be able to stop with just one Kate Marsh/Katie MacAlister/Katie Maxwell.
by Sharon Wildwind
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not a real mystery - not a bad read otherwise, March 3, 2008
This review is from: Ghost of a Chance (Mass Market Paperback)
If you are die hard mystery reader this book is not for you.
Some huge bits of info are left out that leaves the reader not a
ghost of a chance of figuring this mystery out. If you like
Katie's Aisling series you will enjoy this book. Its just as
quirky and fun, just not a real mystery. It reads more like a
Paranormal romance
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