The Ghost Who Loved Diamonds is the second book in Bobbi Holmes’ Haunting Danielle series. It was a bit difficult to find after it was removed from the free books I get through my Audible membership. Even though it had been a while since I read the first book of the series, it was easy to pick the story up here.

Danielle Boatman is nearly ready to open up Marlow House as a Bed & Breakfast. However, her cousin Cheryl shows up and demands Danielle fork over half of their great-aunt’s estate. This includes not just Marlow House, but also the lost diamond necklace Danielle found. Danielle was planning on wearing the necklace to the grand opening before selling it. Cheryl and Danielle grew up together, but after both of their parents died in a plane crash, they drifted apart.

Danielle lets her stay at Marlow House, because she’s not sure whether or not she has the right to deny her. Cheryl’s obnoxious behavior sets off everyone right from the start. She’s making eyes at Lily’s love interest, Ian. When he doesn’t take the bait, she moves on from there. It’s not the first time that happened, as she also tried to break up Danielle and her ex-husband prior to their marriage.

Danielle consults her lawyer, who thinks Cheryl might have a claim. Danielle attempts to go ahead with the grand opening. When both Cheryl and the necklace disappear, the local police believe Danielle had something to do with it. Danielle uses her ability to talk to the dead to get to the bottom of what happened.

This was a nice, light summer reading mystery. Walt Marlow’s ghost is still hanging around Marlow House, although he doesn’t have as much to do here as he did in the first book of the series. Still, I like the character, and his observations make the story very interesting.

My biggest complaint is that Danielle is a bit of a doormat when it comes to Cheryl. She lets her walk all over her and create chaos in Danielle’s life just when she needs things to go smoothly. At no point does Danielle ever tell her to leave. I sure would have, and told her she wasn’t allowed back without a court order saying she could stay there. Danielle might be thinking that Cheryl is her last living relative, but I think I would rather not have any family if my only option were someone like Cheryl.

I knew Danielle had nothing to do with Cheryl’s disappearance, and I thought it was pretty obvious who was actually involved. The story wasn’t that deep of a mystery. It was fun, though, to follow the story and see Cheryl get a bit of a comeuppance. There are humorous moments between Danielle and Cheryl later in the book that make up for the problems with Danielle being something of a doormat to her.

The other characters get nice storytime. Lily’s relationship with Ian seems to be getting deeper, although she’s slated to go back home to her job at the end of the summer. Danielle’s flourishing relationship with police officer Joe Morelli flounders once he’s investigating her for Cheryl’s disappearance. I was proud of how she handled that compared to how she handled Cheryl.

The audiobook is narrated by Romy Nordlinger, who does a good job. The characters have some differing voices, but she doesn’t go overboard. Her diction is clear and precise. I recently tried Kindle’s read-to-me function, and I am ever so grateful for audiobooks. These narrators do such a better job, and I don’t think I’ll listen to any others that aren’t available with narration.

I’ll keep going with the series. I don’t think The Ghost Who Loved Diamonds was quite as good as the first book in the series, but it’s a fun story that was enjoyable to listen to. Danielle is a bit of a doormat, but hopefully she’ll get her mojo going again soon. I like her and Walt working together, and there wasn’t as much of that here.

Previous book in the series:

Next book in the series: