Swashbuckling hotelier Trevor Lambert watched the last place he managed burn to the ground in Craig's Murder at Hotel Cinema
(2008). Now, in his entertaining third outing, Lambert's back in Vancouver, Canada, near his family but jobless and depressed until he discovers Graverly Manor, an inn, for sale near picturesque Lost Lagoon. He decides his own B&B might be just what the doctor ordered, even if it's haunted by its former owner, Lord Andrew Graverly, and Graverly's chambermaid lover. Andrew's eccentric octogenarian widow, Elinor, hires Lambert to manage on a trial basis to see if he's serious. Clarissa, a pretty guest looking into the inn's past, distracts Lambert briefly as he deals with strange sounds, awful smells, a semidemonic cat and murder. Craig's lively mix of the macabre with his ever-urbane humor keeps this neo-Victorian melodrama from collapsing from its familiar haunted house theme. (Apr.)
