Ghost in Trouble: A Mystery (Bailey Ruth) [Hardcover]

Carolyn Hart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 12, 2010 | Series: Bailey Ruth

When Bailey Ruth Raeburn passed over into the great beyond, she was delighted to discover her sleuthing days would last an eternity. Joining Heaven's Department of Good Intentions, she uses her unique advantages as a ghost—sometimes you see her, sometimes you don't—to help those in need and ensure the wicked get their just deserts.

However, on this latest mission, Bailey Ruth finds it more difficult than ever to keep up with her boss Wiggins's rules for good spirit deportment. Not only is the woman she is supposed to save determined to thwart Bailey Ruth's good intentions at every turn, she just so happens to be one of Bailey Ruth's oldest enemies. Not that that should matter to one of Heaven's best and brightest emissaries, but still, there is only so much a person can put up with—living or dead.

But solving Bailey Ruth's toughest case yet means managing a recalcitrant charge, a fraudulent medium, a mother's heartbreak, old passions and new, and a telltale rawhide dog bone. Heaven help her!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Agatha-winner Hart's charming third mystery featuring ghostly emissary Bailey Ruth Raeburn of heaven's "Department of Good Intentions" (after 2009's Merry, Merry Ghost), Bailey returns to earth to protect Kay Clark, a former Adelaide, Okla., acquaintance, from danger. After the fatal fall of Kay's old boyfriend, Jack Hume, at the Hume estate, the Castle, Kay pays her respects to his family at the Castle, where an enormous vase nearly flattens her. In delightful Topperesque fashion, Bailey appears to Kay in an ever-changing array of fashions as Kay's "assistant," Francie de Sales, and together they investigate Kay's brush with the vase. When they discover Jack may have been murdered, suspects range from Hume family members to two of Jack's former lovers. Often disregarding the "precepts for earthly visitation" (avoiding public notice, not consorting with other departed spirits, etc.), Bailey with her sunny Pollyanna attitude makes an irresistible cozy sleuth.
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From the Author

Carolyn talks about mysteries and writing in a new video. Please go to her website at CarolynHart.com and click on the upper right hand corner --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (October 12, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061915017
• ISBN-13: 978-0061915017
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #638,485 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Carolyn Hart talks about mysteries and writing in a new interview on Oklahoma public tv. Please visit www.CarolynHart.com and click on the link in the upper right hand column.

In April Berkley Prime Crime will publish DEATH COMES SILENTLY, the 22nd Death on Demand title. Coming in October is WHAT THE CAT SAW, a novel of suspense.

Carolyn writes the Death on Demand series set in a mystery bookstore on a South Carolina sea island and the Bailey Ruth Raeburn series featuring a lively redheaded ghost.

Carolyn is also the author of several WWII novels, including ESCAPE FROM PARIS which is now available for the first time in its complete uncut version. Escape from Paris is the story of two sisters who defy the Gestapo to help British fliers avoid capture.

In Ghost at Work, Bailey Ruth returns to earth to help someone in trouble. She moves a body, investigates a murder, saves a marriage, prevents a suicide, and--in a fiery finale--rescues a child who knows too much. In Merry, Merry Ghost, Bailey Ruth protects a little boy from danger. In Ghost in Trouble, Bailey Ruth tries to corral a wilful woman determined to play hunt-the-killer. Coming in 2013 is HIJACKED GHOST which puts Bailey Ruth at risk of ever returning to Heaven.

Letter from Home, a WWII novel set on the home front, received the Agatha Award for Best Mystery of 2003. It was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize by the Oklahoma Center for Poets and Writers. Thirteen-year-old Gretchen Gilman is working for the small-town newspaper during the hot summer of 1944. Murder occurs on the street where she lives, forever changing her life and the lives of those involved.

Hart was one of 10 mystery authors featured at the National Book Festival on the Mall in Washington, DC, in 2003 for Letter from Home and again in 2007 for Set Sail for Murder, 7th in the Henrie O series. In Set Sail for Murder (new in paperback March 2008), Henrie O joins a troubled family on a Baltic cruise and death is an unwelcome passenger.

Hart has been nominated 9 times for the Agatha Award for Best Novel and has won 3 times. In 2007 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award at Malice Domestic. She will be the International Guest of Honor at Bloody Words in Toronto on June 6-8, 2008.

Hart is a native of Oklahoma City, a journalism graduate of the University of Oklahoma, and a former president of Sisters in Crime. She is also a member of Authors Guild, Mystery Writers of America, the International Association of Crime Writers, and American Crime Writers League.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Mystery!, September 2, 2010

By 

K. Davis "Kathy Diamond Davis, author" (Oklahoma City, OK USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ghost in Trouble: A Mystery (Bailey Ruth) (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

I'm wary of ghost discussions, but author Carolyn Hart presents this in a rather wholesome way. She has Bailey Ruth Raeburn as someone who has died and gone to heaven. She is not an angel. She participates as a volunteer in the Department of Good Intentions under the supervision of another deceased human living in heaven, Wiggins.

When these individuals return to earth, they are "ghosts." In this story there is a seance, strictly forbidden to Christians--if it is real, that is. Bailey and Wiggins carefully discuss whether Bailey can go to it or not, and why.

Of course I can't give away the story here, since it is after all a mystery. I pretty much never figure out in advance whodunit! But the one who did do it makes sense here, when it is revealed at the end.

I have trouble keeping up with who is who when reading a story with a lot of characters, and working at that is good for my brain. I did manage to follow who was who in this mystery pretty well. After all, there have to be enough possibilities for whodunit to make it a mystery!

This is another winner by Hart!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Missing the Spark, November 9, 2010

By 

Nancy "Stepfordmomto2" (CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Ghost in Trouble: A Mystery (Bailey Ruth) (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

I was not as impressed with this third outing of the Bailey Ruth Series. The first two books had a steady flow, whereas, Ghost in Trouble came across to me as too choppy with a profusion of unnecessary characters. Get to the point, stick to the point and encourage me on the path to the ending that is the formula for a good book. This on the other hand just did not have the spark to keep me reading.

As we know from the previous books, Bailey Ruth Raeburn and her husband died in a boating accident and now Bailey works as a heavenly emissary helping to keep the living out of trouble. Unfortunately, Bailey has a problem when it comes to following the precepts and from time to time oversteps her boundaries much to the frustration of Wiggins her immediate superior.

Bailey Ruth arrives back in Adelaide, Oklahoma, her former in real life home, to help Kay Clark after her boyfriend, Jack Hume, is discovered dead as the bottom of a staircase at the family home known as the Castle, a local Adelaide landmark.

In and out of the story comes the over abundance of characters that lead this reader to refresh her memory as to how they all fit in.

As with the two previous books, Bailey's antics and sudden appearances in multiple outfits, that are practically a character all their own, lead to the bad guys getting caught and the good guys riding off into the sunset, or the train that is barreling into take Bailey Ruth back home.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 3 1/2 stars, September 13, 2010

By 

C. Widman (CT) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ghost in Trouble: A Mystery (Bailey Ruth) (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

In the latest foray of the investigative emissary from Heaven, Bailey Ruth is once again brought back to her hometown of Adelaide, Oklahoma. She is on a mission to save Kay Clark, a woman that she knew in her human life. Kay is at the center of a mysterious death that occurred at the Castle, an estate that is home to the Hume family. Kay is a difficult charge for Bailey Ruth, who has enough trouble following the precepts of Heaven's Department of Good Intentions (and her boss, Wiggins) on her own. Right from the get-go, Bailey Ruth is off to a bad start, "swirling" in and out of being to try to help her charge yet not attract attention. But that of course is impossible. With her redheaded locks and her constant penchant for changing her outfit multiple times each day, you'd think she'd been a fashion model in her former life. She is very obsessed with her image but I suppose as a ghost, there's only so much to entertain yourself...

I was eager to read the latest adventure of Bailey Ruth in Ghost in Trouble. It was a bit of a disappointment. I found it to be a fairly boring read. There are few laugh out loud moments but the plot felt formulaic. The mystery was stretched out and while I wasn't able to guess the who-dun-it, the reveal wasn't an Aha! moment that you usually get at the end of a mystery. The chemistry and back and forth dialogue between Kay and Bailey Ruth was the best part of the story. They played off each other to perfection. I especially liked it when Kay remarked on her need for constant wardrobe changes. I wanted to give her a high five for that comment because it made me feel validated in my annoyance with Bailey Ruth's outfit changes being so overstated.

I think Ghost at Work was the best of the series and each book that succeeds it is a little more rote and familiar. I'd like to see a wrench thrown in the works. Send Bailey Ruth somewhere else, not Oklahoma or have her work as a partner with another ghost, be an emissary trainer or something... She is a character ripe with more plot possibilities and I'm disappointed that this book wasn't more riveting a read. It's a good fluff read (with no profanity or smut, a definite plus for me) if nothing else. In the mystery genre, you can find worse but there is also more thrilling stories to be found. This book is targeted towards fans of this character so if you've read the previous two books, you'd probably still enjoy this outing.