cover image Ghost Wanted

Ghost Wanted

Carolyn Hart. Berkley Prime Crime, $25.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-425-26615-1

In MWA Grand Master Hart’s delightful fifth Bailey Ruth ghost novel (after 2013’s Ghost Gone Wild), the ghost of lady has been haunting the college library in Adelaide, Okla., for years. Her phantasmagorical mission is to spark romances between library patrons, which is a task she accomplishes by leaving roses for select individuals. But now, someone is copying her, placing roses throughout the library—and also vandalizing gargoyles and stealing books. Departed spirit Bailey Ruth Raeburn, of heaven’s Department of Good Intentions, is convinced that a live human being is behind the crimes. As she investigates, she has a few amusing and alarming run-ins with mortals who don’t know about heaven and the ghost world. She also tries to repair a decades-old heartbreak by brokering a romantic reconciliation between the library ghost and a ghost in heaven. The suspense of that amorous subplot is every bit as gripping as the 21st-century intrigue. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary Agency. (Oct.)