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Grave Expectations
Grave Expectations: A Mystery | Alice Bell
6 posts | 5 read | 1 reading | 5 to read
A fast-paced and hilarious debut crime novel, in which a burnt-out Millennial medium must utilize her ability to see ghosts and team-up with a band of oddball investigators to figure out which member(s) of a posh English family are guilty of murder. This book has bags of humor, bags of heart, and a proper murder mystery at its core. Janice Hallett, author of The Appeal Almost-authentic medium Claire and her best friend, Sophie, agree to take on a seemingly simple job at a crumbling old manor in the English countryside: performing a seance for the family matriarch's 80th birthday. The pair have been friends since before Sophie went missing when they were seventeen. Everyone else is convinced Sophie simply ran away, but Claire knows the truth. Claire knows Sophie was murdered because Sophie has been haunting her ever since. Despite this traumatic past, Claire and Sophie are still unprepared for what they encounter when they arrive at the manor: a ghost, tragic and unrecognizable, and clearly the spirit of someone killed in a rage at the previous year's party. Given her obsession with crime showsnot to mention Sophie's ability to walk through wallsClaire decides they're the best people to solve the case. And with the help of the only obviously not-guilty members of their host familysexy ex-policeman Sebastian and far-too-cool non-binary teen Alexthey launch an investigation into which of last year's guests never escaped the manor's grounds. What follows is somewhat irregular detective work involving stealing a priest's cassock, getting too drunk to remember to question your suspect, and of course, Chekhov's sparkly purple dildo. As Claire desperately tries to keep a lid on the shameful secret that would definitely alienate her new friends, the gang must race against their own incompetence to find the murderer before the murderer finds them.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
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review
GerardtheBookworm
GerardtheBookworm
Grave Expectations: A Mystery | Alice Bell
post image
Pickpick

A funny debut mystery series that encompasses Murder She Wrote with Scooby-Doo. A reluctant medium aided by the ghost of her murdered BFF tries to solve a murder mystery at a seance event. Also helping her is a possible love interest and a non binary character making this a unique read in the genre.

9 likes
review
Amie
Amie
Grave Expectations: A Mystery | Alice Bell
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Mehso-so

This has a clever premise and it's humorous, but the pace is way too slow.

32 likes
review
DGRachel
DGRachel
Grave Expectations: A Mystery | Alice Bell
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Pickpick

This started off strong - entertaining and interesting, but devolved into ridiculous melodrama for the last quarter. Despite being complete nonsense, I did actually enjoy it. The audiobook narration was good and as long as you accept the ridiculousness, it was a nice, light diversion from the state of the world. A soft pick that won‘t age well with its heavy use of slang.

47 likes
review
OutsmartYourShelf
OutsmartYourShelf
GRAVE EXPECTATIONS. | ALICE. BELL
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Pickpick

Claire Hendricks is spending the weekend with old university friend, Figgy who has asked her to entertain at her grandmother's birthday party as Claire works as a medium. Figgy's family home is the sort of place where ghosts are quite likely but Claire always has one with her - her friend, Sophie, who disappeared when she was 17. Sophie can't remember what happened &, as her body was never found, Claire is the only one who knows Sophie is dead.

OutsmartYourShelf The party doesn't quite go to plan though & the next morning, the family matriarch is dead, but luckily her ghost hangs around long enough to ask Claire to solve the mystery of the library ghost as she is worried that a family member has committed murder & covered it up. A ghost in the shape of a skeleton, it is tethered to the library until someone solves the mystery of its death & finds the body. 2y
OutsmartYourShelf Enlisting the help of the only two living people there that could possibly be trusted, Alex & Basher (Sebastian), Claire & Sophie set about solving their first mystery.

This is a mystery with a paranormal twist as several ghosts help out along the way. Claire & Sophie are still best friends even though one of them is dead & some of their conversations are like those conducted between slightly exasperated siblings. 2y
OutsmartYourShelf The mystery itself is rather thin, there's not a great deal of actual detecting even though Claire is a self-confessed crime show addict. There were one or two laugh out loud bits though - I particularly liked the misheard Spice Girls lyrics one. Yes, it lost its way a little in the middle but overall it was a nice little paranormal mystery with a humorous edge. 3.5🌟

TW: sexual references, bad language, alcohol & drug use. 2y
OutsmartYourShelf My thanks to #NetGalley & publishers, Atlantic Books/Corvus, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

Full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5517678273

Read: 5th-8th May 2023

#MagnificentMay @andrew65
 2y
Andrew65 Excellent👏👏👏 2y
31 likes2 stack adds5 comments
review
julesG
julesG
GRAVE EXPECTATIONS. | ALICE. BELL
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Mehso-so

I really liked the concept and the first few chapters. When the hunt for the murderer starts in earnest though, it seems that the mystery takes a back-burner. We get lots of scenes between the characters getting to know each other and doing mundane things. This slowed down the pace of the book for me.

#ARC #MountARC #NetGalley

#Booked2023 #ThreeGenerations (actually four generations)
@alisiakae @BarbaraTheBibliophage @Cinfhen

⬇️

julesG The pop-culture references and dialogues seemed to be targeted at an audience that is younger than 40 years of age. I'm not saying people over 40 might not enjoy the book, but the dialogues might grate a bit.

The protagonists have to work for the clues, they don't fall out of the sky, and the characters get some things wrong and blunder several interviews with suspects. This made the murder mystery part of the story much more realistic. 2y
Cinfhen Too bad only a so-so but that‘s how it goes sometimes 2y
55 likes2 comments
blurb
julesG
julesG
GRAVE EXPECTATIONS. | ALICE. BELL
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#ARC about a medium and her ghost who help solve a murder on a country estate.

So far good, but it annoys me to boot that the ghost, who can only be heard by the medium, seems to be able to communicate with the other "detectives". Every snide remark about the medium is answered by everyone around as if they heard it, and I'm pretty sure the medium didn't "translate" all of them.

Considering bailing.

#FabulousFebruary #readathon @Andrew65

TrishB I love that. So far good….I‘m considering bailing 😁 2y
julesG @TrishB I like the characters, but this ghost being heard by everyone is bugging me. 2y
Andrew65 @TrishB 😂 2y
Andrew65 Interested to see whether you bail or not. 2y
58 likes4 comments