Deadly Spirits

"Don't tell me what they said about me. Tell me why they were so comfortable to say it around you." (Quotes from The Gangster Life)

Ah, honor among thieves. It's 1924 in Chicago with Johnny Torio, Hymie Weiss, and Al Capone being territorial within its dark and winding streets. Capone already owns Cicero and his long fingers grip around the high and the mighty. Speakeasies are found in every neighborhood located behind grocery stores and beauty salons. The wine and the whiskey flow.

Mary Miley showcases her main character of Maddie Pastore as she did in the first book, Spirits and Smoke. Deadly Spirits reads quite nicely as a standalone. Maddie is a young widow whose husband, Tommy, was a truck driver for Capone. Tommy was caught in the crosshairs of a gang war. Maddie has been trying to make it on her own with her baby. As a new mother her options were limited. But fate put her in the pathway of Madame Carlotta Romany, a so-called medium. Maddie works as a "shill" digging up info on Carlotta's clients for her seance. Room, board, and so much more.

Miley deepens the design of her story here. Maddie will meet up with her long lost sister, Sophie Dale, singing in one of those speakeasies. Sophie has been accused of murder and the facts and the evidence point exactly at her. Maddie will try everything possible to prove her sister's innocence.

Meanwhile, the gangsters are gettin' restless. Hymie Weiss knows that little Tommy is Capone's godson. He threatens Maddie that her days are numbered if she doesn't set up a meeting with him and Capone. She knows only too well what Weiss' intentions are. Set up Capone 's demise or her own?

Deadly Spirits is a well written trek back into the world of gangsters, speakeasies, and the roar of the Roaring Twenties. Miley's character of Maddie is a solid look at women in the 1920's just gaining the right to vote but still living in a male dominated world. Maddie is in survival mode with a young child and not many options. She wants to steer clear of Capone, but she knows desperation may come knockin' at her door. Let's see where Mary Miley takes Maddie in the the next one........Spirits of the Other World and Spirits in bottles behind closed doors. Tell 'em I sent 'cha.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Severn House and to Mary Miley for the opportunity.

Speakeasies And Seances…
The third in the Mystic’s Accomplice mystery series as the reader is thrust back to a 1920’s Chicago and a world of speakeasies, mobsters and … seances. Reluctant sleuth Maddie Pastore rises again as a fiesty and fearless heroine in this action packed and atmospheric mystery with twists and turns aplenty and an eccentric, well crafted cast of supporting characters.

Charming, with a goodly dollop of history in it. Set in 1920s Chicago, this mystery features the traditional mystery finds: quirky characters, a potential love interest (?), and lots of atmospheric set descriptions. This is the third book in a series but you do not have to have read the first two books to enjoy and appreciate Maddie's story. Recommended enough that I have the first two on hold at my local library!

A well done cozy mystery set in 1920s Chicago. This is the third in a series, but works well as a standalone.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC copy for my review.

Maddie Pastore is a young widow working for spiritual medium Madame Carlotta for bed and board for herself and her fourteen-month-old son. She attends Madame Carlotta’s séances as a shill, but her real purpose is to research upcoming clients so she can feed info to Freddie who helps with “enhancements” to solidify the séance experience.

At a speakeasy performance, Maddie discovers the star performer is her own baby sister, but before she and Sophie can have a real reunion, she is notified by Sophie’s husband that she’s in hoosegow charged with first-degree murder.

You can’t scratch much of the surface of Chicago’s history without confronting the mobsters who populated the back streets and unfortunately Maddie has a bit of experience with that.

Loved the history, the Chicago mystique, along with additional fascinating tidbits.

In between finding a way out of jail for the sister she’s sure is innocent, she is given the names of new clients to investigate and these become interesting sub-stories seamlessly fabricated into the narrative.

I like the characters, both the main characters and the support characters, several drawn from history.

I had just a little problem with the climax (wondering about survivability) and the conclusion that pushed boundaries a bit. Otherwise, although this is the third in the series, it can easily be read as a standalone. It’s engaging, evenly fast-paced, and has me ready to read the next.

It was a bit slow for me but once it picked up, I was quite entertained.
A bit gritty but atmospheric for the time period.
I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book.

Chicagoland is a dangerous place in 1924 if your young son is the godson of Al Capone but Maddie is keeping her head above water by shilling for Carlotta, a psychic. She hasn't seen her family in years but then she sees her sister Sophie singing and almost immediately after, Sophie is arrested for murder. This is not your usual cozy although the bones are there. Maddie is threatened by the bad guys, dodges the underbelly of the city, and works her way into finding the true villain. She's terrific as is Carlotta. I'd only read the first book in this series and Miley gave good updates to catch me up. This should also be fine as a standalone. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A fun atmospheric read with an intriguing protagonist.

An enjoyable crime drama set in Chicago during the 1920’s. Relatable characters coupled with historical period accuracy and a well paced plot kept me reading late into the night. Even the somewhat predictable ending did not diminish my enjoyment of this book. Highly recommended

Thanks to NetGalley and Seven House Publishing for an advanced reader copy.

"Medium's assistant - and reluctant sleuth - Maddie Pastore is shocked when her long-lost sister is accused of murder, in this twisty, atmospheric mystery set in 1920s Chicago.

Summer, 1924. Young widow Maddie Pastore has been working for fraudulent spiritual medium Madame Carlotta for nearly a year - if 'work' you could call it. Investigating Carlotta's clients, and attending seances as her shill, keeps Maddie and her young son Tommy fed and clothed, and she's grown to love the kind, well-meaning spiritualist like family.

Still, Maddie - estranged from her abusive parents for over a decade - can't help but wonder what fates befell her brothers and sisters. So when she lucks into two free tickets to a glamorous Chicago speakeasy and recognizes the star performer as her pretty little sister Sophie, she's beyond delighted.

But before Maddie can meet with Sophie again, the telephone rings. It's Sophie's husband, calling in a panic to tell her that his wife is locked in the Cook County jail, charged with first-degree murder...

Enter a dark and deadly world of seances and speakeasies, populated by fake mediums, sultry singers and dangerous mobsters An ideal pick for readers who enjoy glitzy Jazz Age mysteries with feisty female sleuths."

I am always here for mediums and murders!

I'm always glad when I start a story featuring Maddie Pastore as I know I'm going to read an entertaining story. This one matched my expectations and kept me hooked and guessing.
I think that the characters and the historical background are amongst the strong points of this series and the plots are always well developed.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I was thrilled to once more spend time with one of my favourite protagonists, Maddie Pastore. Widowed just weeks before giving birth to her son, Maddie has had a busy year keeping herself and baby Tommy from starving in 1920s Chicago at the height of Prohibition. She lives with spiritual medium Madam Carlotta and in return for bed and board, Maddie discovers details about Madam Carlotta’s clients before they attend her seances that she can use to convince them she’s the real deal. Endearingly, Madam Carlotta knows she is genuine and feels called to help the bereaved by relaying comforting messages from their dead departed – and very occasionally, those messages do seem to come from the other side. However, more often that isn’t the case, so Maddie and young Freddie resort to tricks to keep Madam Carlotta’s clientele happy.

Maddie isn’t particularly proud of what she does, but is fond of Madam Carlotta and grateful for having a place to stay where she and her baby are looked after and well fed. This being Chicago during a very violent time, it isn’t surprising that in her line of work, Maddie comes across occasional unsolved murders. And one that becomes her priority is a case in which her talented younger sister has been entangled. Far too many details don’t make sense – but the police aren’t willing to look any further when a young woman holding the murder weapon is conveniently placed at the murder scene.

This page-turning whodunit held me from the first page until the last, providing several satisfying surprises along the way. I certainly didn’t peg the murderer until all was revealed and once again, having gangsters like Al Capone make an appearance added extra tension to the story. I love Maddie’s can-do practicality and the way Miley also weaves real historical figures into her murder mysteries. While this is the third book in the series and I strongly recommend you read them all – they are far too good to pass up – you wouldn’t unduly flounder if you haven’t had the pleasure of tucking into the previous adventures. Highly recommended for fans of historical murder mysteries, particularly those set during the Prohibition era. While I obtained an arc of Deadly Spirits from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
9/10

Maddie Pastore is back with this new title in the Mystic Apprentice Mystery Series, a rollicking and entertaining story set in Chicago during the Roaring Twenties.

This time around we get less séances but more of a family drama when Maddie must come to the rescue of her kid sister, a cabaret singer wrongfully accused of murdering a prominent Chicagoan figure at his house during a party.

Flappers, mobsters, cops, speakeasies and all the smells and sounds of the Windy City comingle in this terrific whodunit full of sparkling dialogues, great historical details and a vast cast of delightful characters that make this brillant fictional tapestry come vividly to life. A delicious treat to savor from start to finish!

Many thanks to Severn House and Netgalley for this terrific ARC

This book was definitely intriguing to me just based on the description. However, it was a bit slow to start off and not the easiest to get into.

Special thanks to the publisher, Severn House, and NetGalley for the eARC and the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions are my own.