THE GHOST AND THE STOLEN TEARS

A ghostly gumshoe and a bookshop owner team up to solve crimes across time.

After her husband died, 30-something Penny Thornton-McClure returned to her Rhode Island hometown, taking over her family's failing bookstore and making a success of it. Back in the 1940s, Jack Shepard was a tough private eye who was killed in the store. Now he appears to Penny, and they've had some fine times together. Norma Stanton, who works part time in the bookstore, is a bit of a puzzle, a rover who travels the country in a van taking odd jobs and moving on. She also works part time as a housekeeper at a local inn, where she's accused of stealing a valuable diamond necklace and earrings from a visiting actress who'd inherited them from an aunt. Then Norma vanishes. Jack warns Penny that the distinctive gems are known as the Tears of Valentino and that they bring murder and mayhem in their wake. He'd been searching for them himself before he died. No one in town can believe that Norma’s guilty, but in her absence, the state police are brought in to investigate. Penny and Jack time travel in her dreams between past and present, where the necklace is a motive for murder. Even with the help of Jack’s contacts in the past and Penny’s present-day friends, they don’t find it easy or safe to find the gems or the killer.

Engaging characters, historical backgrounds, and plenty of red herrings add up to a gem of a story.