At an auction, competition can be deadly…
When Maddie attends an estate auction of artifacts from America’s spiritualist era, it’s just another day in the life of a paranormal museum owner…. Until she discovers the body of the murdered auctioneer.
Her mother is convinced the murderer is after a mysterious statuette that once belonged to the town’s Ladies Aid Society. With the holidays approaching, Maddie and friends dive into the mad world of obsessive collectors to find the missing statuette… and a killer.
Maddie tracks her suspects through a secluded gothic estate, in the wineries of Central California, and along the streets of small-town San Benedetto. But this clever criminal is determined to win at all costs. Will the killer use Maddie’s friends as the ultimate weapon against her?
If you love laugh-out-loud mysteries, witty heroines, quirky cats, and a touch of the paranormal, you’ll love Going, Going, Dead, book 6 in the Paranormal Museum mystery series. Read this twisty cozy mystery today!
If the mansion had been open to the public, my museum would have gone bust.
I turned, gawping at the colorful spirit boards covering its dining room walls. A glass cabinet displayed planchettes and other tools of the medium’s trade. The gothic home was amazing and unnerving and had loads more artifacts than my paranormal museum.
But the late owner’s hermit-like nature had been my museum’s gain. Few knew or had seen the mysteries within his creeptastic mansion. Bwahaha…
“I cannot believe you could be so ungrateful.” My paranormal collector, Herb, glared up at me. Light from the dusty chandelier glinted off his coke-bottle glasses. His narrow chin quivered.
“I’m not ungrateful,” I said. “I just wanted to come to the auction.” Sheesh. I raked my hands through my brown hair, then tied it into a loose knot. “I mean, it’s so close to San Benedetto.”
The older man’s eyes narrowed. “What are you really here for, Madelyn?” He said my name like my mother might on a bad day—a bad day for me.
“The catalog says they’re selling a vintage Zoltan fortune telling machine. It’s not cursed or anything,” I said. “So, I didn’t think you’d—”
“I knew it would come to this.” A chill draft stirred his wispy hair and raised goosebumps on my skin. “You’re trying to chisel me out of my commission.”
“No.” Okay, yes. “You specialize in paranormal objects. The Zoltan isn’t paranormal. It’s just cool.”
It wasn’t as big or impressive as the Zoltar machine from the movie Big. But that was a feature, not a bug. My museum was getting cramped, and it needed new exhibits to bring people in.
Review
Another fun and fantastic mystery from Weiss. I spent a few years in my early twenties going to auctions with my parents, so the auction angle in this book was interesting. It didn’t really dive into the competitive nature of the auction itself, but there was plenty of tension, nonetheless. I mean, dead bodies tend to have that effect.
Lots of laugh-out-loud moments, as I expected there would be. The quirky cast of characters is a hoot, and the ending had me chuckling a lot. The cat is also a grand edition, and I admire the main character’s patients. If a cat bit me that many times in one book, I’d kick it. Lol
Definitely recommend this book and the series as a whole. Especially for cozy mystery fans, but this is good for anyone wanting a dash of the paranormal wrapped in a fun read.
Kirsten Weiss writes laugh-out-loud, page-turning mysteries. Her heroines aren’t perfect, but they’re smart, they struggle, and they succeed. Kirsten writes in a house high on a hill in the Colorado woods and occasionally ventures out for wine and chocolate. Or for a visit to the local pie shop. Kirsten is best known for her Wits’ End, Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum, and Tea & Tarot cozy mystery books. So if you like funny, action-packed mysteries with complicated heroines, just turn the page…
Find her online at https://kirstenweiss.com.
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All the opinions expressed in this review are my own. Read the full disclosure here.