This post contains Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Cleo Coyle is back at Salty Inspirations! Last month, I welcomed Cleo for a visit featuring Eat, Drink, and Get Buried by Cleo Coyle. Today, I’m featuring another of her books, The Ghost and the Dead Librarian, for readers who enjoy a little mystery with their bookshop browsing. I hope you’ll take a look at this first book in Cleo Coyle’s spin-off series, a haunted bookshop detective mystery!
Spotlight!
The Ghost and the Dead Librarian (A Haunted Bookshop Detective Mystery) by Cleo CoyleAbout The Ghost and the Dead Librarian
The Ghost and the Dead Librarian (A Haunted Bookshop Detective Mystery)
Paranormal Cozy Mystery
1st in the Series – Spinoff of the Haunted Bookshop Mysteries
Setting – Rhode Island
Publisher : Kensington Cozies
Publication date : September 29, 2026
Print length : 384 pages
Hardcover
ISBN-10 : 1496749332
ISBN-13 : 978-1496749338
Digital
ISBN-13 : 978-1496749352
ASIN : B0GDS6KY2P
Audio CD
ISBN-13 : 979-8228951006
ASIN : B0H55H66KS
Audiobook
ASIN B0H2NLG2YP
A LIBRARY JOURNAL “MYSTERY PICK OF THE MONTH” In an utterly charming new mystery from New York Times bestselling author Cleo Coyle, a small-town Rhode Island bookshop owner investigates the death of an eccentric librarian with the help of a wisecracking, 1940s gumshoe ghost.
As a young widow, Penelope moved back to her quaint Rhode Island town to give her young son a safer home and her aunt’s dying bookshop new life. Using her late husband’s insurance money, Pen polished the store into a local treasure. But her updates did more than attract new customers. They roused a dead private eye from his big sleep.
With Pen’s affection for hardboiled detective stories, it’s no surprise she’s developed a fondness for the wisecracking yet oddly likeable spirit. Sure, Jack’s cold spots are exasperating, along with his proclivity for putting noir fiction in the cozy section. But murder was Jack’s business in life, and his PI skills come in awfully handy when the body of an eccentric librarian is found amid the bookshop’s aisles.
For years, Dory jokingly called herself “The Dead Librarian” because of her hobby of collecting and writing local obituaries. Now, in death, she’s discovered with her own eerily pre-written obit. Was it a suicide note? Jack and Pen say no and their certainty takes them from a ghost town’s ancient cemetery to a posh Newport mansion. When another body drops, a mysterious stranger makes Pen a shocking offer, one that may change her life—and Jack’s afterlife. But unless Jack can help Pen prove who “checked out” the librarian, a ruthless killer may close the book on her.
“This spin-off of Coyle’s ‘Haunted Bookshop’ series blends cozy mystery, supernatural intrigue, and classic noir influences into a suspenseful small-town murder mystery….Combining humor, literary references, ghostly interventions, and layered community drama, the novel explores how hidden truths from the past continue to haunt the present.” —Library Journal (*Starred Review)
About Cleo Coyle
CLEO COYLE is a pseudonym for Alice Alfonsi, writing in collaboration with her husband, Marc Cerasini. Both are New York Times bestselling authors of the long-running Coffeehouse Mysteries, now celebrating more than 20 years in print, and the national bestselling Haunted Bookshop Mysteries. With more than one million books sold, their works have been translated into Spanish, Japanese, and Czech; received multiple Best of Year selection honors from reviewers; and have been recommended by Booklist as among the best culinary mysteries for core library mystery collections. Alice and Marc are also bestselling media tie-in writers who have penned properties for Lucasfilm, NBC, Fox, Disney, Imagine, Toho, and MGM. They live and work in New York City, where they write independently and together, wrangle their rescue cats, drink a lot of java, and cook like crazy. Connect with Cleo at CleoCoyleBooks.com
Author Links
Purchase Links
Tour Participants
October 19 – Jody’s Bookish Haven – SPOTLIGHT
October 19 – Carla Loves To Read – REVIEW
October 20 – The Avid Reader – REVIEW
October 20 – Romance Novel Giveaways – SPOTLIGHT
October 21 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW
October 21 – Books1987 – SPOTLIGHT
October 22 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – REVIEW
October 22 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
October 23 – View from the Birdhouse – REVIEW
October 23 – Sarandipity’s – SPOTLIGHT
October 24 – deal sharing aunt – SPOTLIGHT
October 25 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
October 26 – The Plain-Spoken Pen – REVIEW
October 26 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
October 27 – Ruff Drafts – SPOTLIGHT
October 27 – Salty Inspirations – SPOTLIGHT
October 28 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT
October 28 – Baroness Book Trove – REVIEW
October 29 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW
October 30 – Sarah Can’t Stop Reading Books – REVIEW
October 30 – Sarcastically Yours, Jen – SPOTLIGHT
October 31 – Boys’ Mom Reads! – SPOTLIGHT
October 31 – The Editing Pen -REVIEW
Have you signed up to be a Tour Host? Click Here to Find Details and Sign Up Today! Want to Book a Tour? Click Here
Thank you to Cleo Coyle for visiting Salty Inspirations again!
If The Ghost and the Dead Librarian sounds like your kind of mystery, consider adding it to your TBR list. While you’re here, take a look around the blog for more author spotlights, cozy mysteries, and other bookish discoveries.
As always, thanks for stopping by for some Salty Inspirations! —Michelle❤️
