Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: Ghost Story
SERIES: Haunted Souls #2
AUTHOR: Pandora Pine
NARRATOR: Michael Pauley
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
RELEASE DATE: August 14, 2019
LENGTH: 7 hours, 36 minutes
BLURB:
Newly-minted Ghost Detective Jude Byrne finally has his life in order. He’s got a job he loves, friends he can count on, and a partner he actually likes. Jude’s only problem is the growing attraction between himself and his partner. He knows nothing will sink their partnership quicker than giving in to those urges.
Psychic Copeland Forbes is settling nicely into Salem, Massachusetts. He and Jude have formed the perfect partnership, with the former PI researching the history of the places they are hired to investigate, while it’s Cope’s job to communicate with the spirits they encounter to either move them on to the other side or work out an amicable arrangement with the people now living in their home. So far, the duo has a perfect record and completely satisfied customers.
The detectives’ record is put to the test when teenager Xavier Lewis parks his bike outside West Side Magick and asks if Jude and Cope’s fee can be paid via weekly installments of his allowance money. When Jude tells the boy it all depends on the story he has to tell, neither detective is prepared for the tale that spills out of Xavier’s mouth. When the boy tells them about a ghostly woman in white that he thinks is trying to kill him, Jude and Copeland are all in.
The partners soon discover that not all ghosts can be reasoned with, and that the risks of dealing with the paranormal are very real indeed. Will the ghost detectives be able to solve the mystery of the woman in white, or will they become the next victims in her ghost story?
REVIEW:
I don’t know you guys… My main feeling after listening to this book is confusion. I’m so confused on so many fronts that I don’t even have the first clue where to start or what to think.
I’ve listened to all of the audiobooks produced in this universe but I still find myself majorly lost a lot of the time. I feel like I’m missing something, some back story that would make this story a bit easier to follow. There were so many tiny references to people and events that didn’t really serve any purpose than to confuse the listener. That might work with a print book, where you can have a moment to go back or to think about the character or event to fully understand the reference. But when you listen to the audio that will only make you lost. Not only losing the reference, but also the time spent searching your memory will cause you to detach from what’s going on here and now.
So to find out if my confusion was due to my own lack of memory of the previous books I went looking for a reading order, and boy did that ever give me the answers to my questions. There are three series intersecting in this universe and in my mind I assumed the audios were being released in reading order of the three. But you know what they say about assuming…. I found that we jumped 10! books with the release of the first audiobook in this series, and another 4 between the first and this one. No wonder that I’m confused about random people I’ve never heard of – or events that I can’t remember.
In theory each story does stand on its own – in that the case or ghost they are working on gets resolved, we get closure when the mystery is solved. But in reality there is also so much background story that keeps building, like children being born or growing up, more people are added to the main cast so to speak. And it’s not even that, it’s also the magical world itself that changes with the books. It started out kind of simple and straightforward, but now it feels like Pine is trying to add more stuff to keep the reader interested. But personally that haven’t worked, it’s left me confused and feeling like the roots and essence of this universe has gotten lost somewhere on the way.
While listening I didn’t feel a part of this story as I have with the previous ones. I’m a spectator looking in. There is a distance between me and the characters and not even Michael Pauley’s talents could really bring this book to life for me. He never gripped or made me invested. Mostly I do believe it’s because of the time-jumps that leaves the listeners confused. The story of the woman in white haunting a teenage boy and even trying to kill said boy was an interesting one for sure, but my mind and heart just wasn’t in it. Pauley is a solid narrator, there is no doubt about it, but even he struggled with maintaining the voices for the myriad of male characters in this book. He kept up the main ones really good, but the secondary and minor characters were all the same. It wasn’t bad in any way, it just added to the distance I felt to them all.
I’m not sure what I’ll do if/when more books are released in this series or universe. But most likely I’m going to pass on them if they are released out of order. I for one am not fond of feeling this confused.
RATING: 
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