Marshall Thornton

2.5 Hearts

Hi. *waves*

It’s me in my corner. Again. In my box of shame.

Full disclosure. I’m not one who usually likes ghost stories, but the chance at listening to an audio, and a Marshall Thornton one at that, I was hopeful this would change my mind. It didn’t.

Basically this is about Cal, a non-working actor scraping by but just barely. Luck is on his side when he confoundingly inherits the estate of his very rich ex whom he hasn’t seen in 15 years. As Cal arrives in the small town where his inheritance is located, he just quickly wants to liquidate things and move on. However, his dead ex Mac, won’t let him do so easily, and Cal unknowingly gets pulled into an extended stay due to the machinations of the town’s theatre group who's desperate to gain some extensive funding from him. In and amongst these happenings, Cal finds himself getting more and more romantically entangled with lawyer Dewey, who is only too happy to help him navigate and manage his new assets.

So….. I apparently am not the target audience for such, and apparently my sense of humor was not turned on either. The reason why I often scoff at ghosts is because I tire of shenanigans where the MC is trying to look sane while fending off a jealous, malicious, annoying spirit who just won’t let sleeping dogs lie. The farcical moments of everyone not being able to see said ghost, except the one person it’s “haunting”, can be a bit much. However, many many readers thought this funny and quirky so don’t mind me in my corner. I just found the greedy townsfolk bent on getting Cal’s money and the selfish reasons for why Cal’s ex wanted him so badly, overpowered the romance brewing between Cal and Dewey, and it was quite frustrating.

You can’t win ‘em all right?

Narrated by Jason Frazier, I liken him to a more subdued Joel Leslie which may work for some and not for others. However, his very distinctive cadence and rhythm took some getting used to, and I never quite warmed up to him, despite his enthusiastic interpretation and great voice distinction.

I so wanted to like this hard. I won’t say never to another ghost story, but I think for now, I’ll just stick to Thornton’s mysteries instead.

Thanks to the author/publisher for the audio in exchange for a honest review


… (meer)

Nick, Nick, Nick.

At first I think I gave you too much credit from the last book, because over and over in this installment you should have known better.
You should have known better than to tell Harker's secret.
You should have known better than to continue feeding your huge libido.
You should have known better than to interfere with a police investigation.

Most of the time things work out for you because you're part lucky bastard and part quite good at your job. But I have to say that I've never been so mad at a person for blatant stupidity and neglect of other's feelings. I just wanted to reach through my kindle and throttle you many, many times!!

Having said that, your luck did persevere and your risk taking did pay off. Harker is right. You're a stubborn shit and that character flaw (or you can call it a trait) redeems you. Despite the fact that I disagree with your personal decision making skills, you do have morals most of the people you encounter do not. And yes, that's what counts.

So I guess I'm giving you back your "credit", and keeping my fingers crossed. You're not making this easy on me at all, but that won't stop me from seeing what else is in store for you in the future. I only want the best for you but sometimes you make it very hard to like you. Am I going to end up telling myself I should have known better??… (meer)