bibliophile80 's review for:

Ghostly Echoes by William Ritter

5.0

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This book did not disappoint. Ghost Jenny Cavanaugh has been a supporting character for the first two Jackaby novels, but she really gets "fleshed out" in this one (pun intended), as Jackaby and Abigail help her investigate her own murder. It's nice to see Jackaby growing and changing as the series goes on, too. He opens up nicely in "Ghostly Echoes," without losing his characteristic obtuseness and formality. Abigail is such a great first-person narrator. She's so sweet and relatable that you just want to be her best friend (and try to protect her a bit, too). It wouldn't have been as satisfying without the reappearance of the amazing cast of characters I've grown to love, including Hatun, Douglas, and Charlie, but the new additions were just as well-drawn and intriguing. It's lovely that Ritter doesn't create straight-up "bad guys" and "good guys." Instead, the good characters are flawed in very real ways, and the evil characters often have something beautifully tragic or otherwise sympathetic about them. Don't even dream of reading this book until you've experienced the first two in the series, and be prepared to feel extremely anxious for the next installment.