"The Ghost and Mrs. Mewer"

Krista Davis lives and writes in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

She applied the Page 69 Test to The Ghost and Mrs. Mewer, the 2nd book in the Paws and Claws Mystery Series, and reported the following:

Oh my! So much misery. Trust me when I say that there’s humor, too, and that The Ghost and Mrs. Mewer isn’t a sad book. Felix, Grayson, and Mark are ghost hunters. Eva is a ghost debunker who fainted when she learned that Mallory is dead.

I avoided mentioning that she fell on Mrs. Mewer’s tail, fearing that would set off more guilt and tears.

Felix inched closer, evidently feeling awkward. “Um . . . you know, Mark is a friend of mine, too.”

“He is?” she sniffled.

Grayson took a seat, his elbows on his knees, his face turned toward the floor.

Felix sat down near Eva. “We were college roommates. He’s a great guy. I can’t believe Mallory is dead. Mark must be flipping out.”

Eva nodded. Was she holding her breath?

“Did . . . did you work with Mark?” asked Felix.

“Sort of. We met when he was investigating some haunted manor houses in England.”

Felix’s eyes widened in surprise. “Cool. I’ve done a few of those. Did you know Mallory?”

“This is so tragic. Do you know her family story?” Eva sniffled and knotted a tissue.

Her face screwed up. “It’s so sad!”

Grayson wiped his eyes with his fingers. “When Mallory was fourteen, her father and brother died in a boating accident. You can imagine how horrible that was. Her mother couldn’t take it, and a month later, Mallory came home from school to find her mother had intentionally overdosed.”

“She was shipped from relative to relative,” said Eva. “I can’t believe that their family saga ended with her drowning.”

“It’s like they were cursed,” said Grayson.

Felix seemed at a loss. “I talked with her last night. She was so happy.” Felix rubbed his face with both palms. He looked at me when he said, “Mark is a trust fund baby from an Oklahoma oil family. You’d never know it. He acts like a regular guy, but he’s filthy rich.”

“Must be nice,” said Grayson. “My grandfathers were missing in action.”

“Both of them? Vietnam?” asked Felix.

“That’s not what I meant. They were just absentee. We never saw them. My parents went through a nasty divorce when I was just a baby. My mom took my sister and me, started a new life, and in the ensuing bitterness, cut off all contact with my dad’s family. Then my dad died.”

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Coffee with a canine: Krista Davis & Han, Buttercup, and Queenie.

--Marshal Zeringue