I thought this was a strong concept for a renovating show dealing with supernatural elements. It had a strong story going on and worked with the overall feel that I wanted. The characters were interesting and felt like they were supposed to in this universe. Frank Anthony Polito has a great writing style and was excited to read the next book.

Content Warnings: Mild homophobia/biphobia (historical)

Polito’s novel is the third in a series. While, technically, it can be read as a standalone work, there are so many plot points and characters reintroduced from earlier books that its cumbersome.

Before addressing my critiques, here are some positives to the work. The fictional community in the novel is LGBTQ+ friendly and features various forms of representation. For those who prefer a cozy mystery that’s heavy on cozy and light on mystery, this book provides that. I’m not that reader, but I know some might be.

My primary critique of the work is that there is both too little and too much plot. There is too little plot related to the actual mysteries being addressed, namely the truth behind the death of Emma Woods in 1997 and whether the house undergoing renovation is haunted. Nothing spooky or majorly related to resolving the murder happen until about 60% into the book; the resolution of both cases doesn’t occur until literally the final major scene. All of the clues/investigation come in the form of readers being told, rather than shown, things, whether it’s from a diary, a memory of someone who attended the party where the death took place, or a monologue.

There is too much plot related to everything else. People’s clothing, architecture and design of various buildings, past events and characters, the narrator’s dogs, are all described in excruciating detail, but it’s too much detail to make anything stick out and, ultimately, most of these details are unimportant. For example, there are large portions of multiple chapters related to whether the narrator’s mom will get a dog, and then meeting the dog, and then that whole plot line is dropped with no resolution. There are multiple subplots like this that do not move the story forward and end up being unresolved, which is frustrating.

I am new to this author and still very new to murder mystery type stories, but I really enjoyed this one! I definitely was on the edge of my seat trying to figure out what was going on until all was revealed, and it was so fun!

Frank Anthony Polito is back with the third novel in his "Domestic Partners in Crime" series. This time, partners JP and PJ are called in to help renovate a long-abandoned mansion in the Detroit suburbs. The house was the scene of a suspected murder some decades ago, and some claim it is still haunted! JP and PJ agree to the renovation, but something or someone seem keen to put an end to it from the great Beyond!

This mystery unfurls in a fun way and keeps the reader guessing up until the big reveal! This series gets even better with each entry, and this is my favorite in the series. I am looking forward to many more in this fun series!