The Ghost of Christmas Past by Rhys Bowen

I was very delighted to receive a copy to review on Netgalley yesterday. Rhys Bowen is as many of you know a very good author. This is the first for me in the Molly Murphy Mystery series and book 17 of 18. It was very easy to see why this is such a long running and popular series. This book was full of timeless emotion and all the pulls the holiday can bring. This book felt very real and Molly very relatable even though this is a period based cozy, it felt very relevant. The theme of family resonates throughout this book and I simply could not put it down. I read it November 14th, on the most perfect of reading evenings, a most dark and stormy night. I could not put this book down and was delighted and enchanted by it. A very good holiday read!

Semi-retired private detective Molly Murphy Sullivan is suffering from depression after a miscarriage following her adventure in San Francisco during the earthquake of 1906. She and her husband, Daniel, are invited for Christmas at a mansion on the Hudson, and they gratefully accept, expecting a peaceful and relaxing holiday season. Not long after they arrive, however, they start to feel the tension in the house’s atmosphere. Then they learn that the host couple's young daughter wandered out into the snow ten years ago and was never seen again. Molly can identify with the mother's pain at never knowing what happened to her child and wants to help, but there is so little to go on. No ransom note. No body ever found. But Molly slowly begins to suspect that the occupants of the house know more than they are letting on. Then, on Christmas Eve, there is a knock at the door and a young girl stands there. "I'm Charlotte," she says. "I've come home."

This lovely holiday read is available now and one I highly recommend. Click here to find it listed on Amazon.
Thank you for joining me for a cup of tea and a cozy mystery review I would love to hear from you so please leave me a comment here or email me at karenmowen@gmail.com