Review of Haunting the Haunted by E.C. Bell

Welcome to the kickoff for the tour for Haunting the Haunted, the latest in the Marie Jenner mystery series by E.C. Bell. I have an excerpt for you to enjoy as well as my thoughts on the book. You can follow the tour to see even more, while leaving your comments and questions for the author along the way. And remember to enter the giveaway!

Haunting the Haunted

In the sixth book in the Marie Jenner Mystery series, life is finally starting to look up for Marie. Her brand-new business—moving on ghosts for actual money—is taking off. Her relationship with James Lavall is rock solid. All she has to do is find the last two poltergeists from the ball diamond and move them on to the next plane of existence and, as far as she’s concerned, life will be perfect.

The problem is, life has a way of kicking Marie in the teeth. Patrick Whitecroft, professional psychic debunker, shows up at the Jimmy Lavall Detective agency. He’s out to prove that she’s a fake—live, on TV—and he doesn’t care who he hurts to do it. Even worse, he has over a hundred desperate spirits bound to him, and they want something completely different. They want to be saved.

As Marie tries to help the spirits and keep Patrick from dismantling her life, she finally finds the poltergeists. But they’re not interested in moving on. They want Patrick Whitecroft’s spirits for themselves. If Marie can’t figure out a way to move all the spirits on to the next plane of existence, the poltergeists will happily take them, so they can create an army bent on revenge.

Looks like Marie’s life is going to get interesting. Again.

Read an excerpt:

“Tell me your names,” I said to the two ghosts Karen had brought to me. “Quickly. Before Patrick leaves and takes you with him.”

“I’m Ruby Packer, from El Reno, Oklahoma,” the old woman said. She pointed to the little girl in the muddy dress. “And this is Joy Peters. She’s from here. We found her in the Springworks night club a few years ago. You know the place?”

“No,” I said. “Can you give me dates for your deaths?”

“I died in ’78,” Ruby said. “I don’t know about Joy. She was killed a long time ago, though. Probably the fifties.”

“Killed?” I asked.

“Killed,” she repeated. “I think. She can’t remember much, but something bad happened to her. I’m sure of it.”

I looked down at Joy. “Did someone hurt you?” I asked.

The little girl’s face stilled. “I don’t remember,” she said. “I don’t want to think about it. I want to see my Mommy.”

“Maybe later,” Ruby said, and stared at me hard. “Can you help us?”

“I’ll do my best,” I said. Then I looked out at the rest of the ghosts who had arrived with Patrick Whitecroft. “Tell me who you are and when you died.”

The ghosts screeched their names and dates of death, and I wrote as quickly as I could until Patrick grabbed the pen from my hand and threw it across the room.

“Stop that, charlatan!” he shrieked. “You’re not fooling anybody!”

Buy links: 

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**My thoughts**

This is my first E.C. Bell book and my first paranormal mystery like this one. Half of it is told from the point of view of Marie, the human who is capable of seeing and communicating with ghosts. The other half is told from the point of view of Ruby, one of the ghosts who seeks help from Marie. 

I really feel for Ruby and Joy who are just seeking answers about their families and wanting to move on. Life is confusing enough as it is, let alone having the afterlife being so confusing and having almost zero control over it. It's an interesting perspective on what can happen to people on the other side.

Marie definitely seems to have had an interesting journey with her ghosting abilities, some good and some awful. This whole backstory about the poltergeists is touched upon, but I think it would be helpful to read the previous books in the series to fully understand what is really going on. I feel sorry for her because she is trying to hard to move on with her life and is suffering PTSD from an earlier attack. And then this Patrick guy comes to town and just wreaks havoc on her life. I really wanted to scream and cry with her.

And at the same time, I felt sorry for Patrick, because he has clearly had a horrible life and just wants to take it out on everyone else. But it doesn't excuse his atrocious behavior.

My interest in the previous books is piqued. I may have to add them to my list.

About E.C. Bell

E.C. Bell is the author of the award winning paranormal Marie Jenner Mystery series. She lives in Alberta, Canada, and when she’s not writing, she’s scouting out new locations for her upcoming novels or renovating her round house where she lives with her husband and their two rescue dogs.

That’s right. Her house is round.

Join her mailing list on her website at http://www.eileenbell.com/ for news about new books, upcoming appearances and, occasionally, recipes.

Follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ecbellmystery/

and Twitter at https://twitter.com/ApocalypseWoman


Marie Jenner Mystery series books, in order:
Seeing the Light
Drowning in Amber
Stalking the Dead
Dying on Second
Hearing Voices
Haunting the Haunted

E.C. Bell will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway