Southern Spirits by Angie Fox Review

This is the first in a new to me series, Southern Ghost Hunter Mysteries.  It features Verity Long, who has moved back to her hometown (Sugarland, Tennessee), inherited her grandmother's house, got engaged to a member of a prominent local family (the Wydells), found out her fiance was a cheating  jerk, and broke the engagement the day of the wedding, followed by going to the reception he was still having to smash the cake in his face in front of everyone.

As revenge, the Wydell family sued her for the expensive wedding which they had insisted on, and won.  After selling off everything she owned, with the exception of her grandmother's house, she is still left $20,000 in debt, and may be forced to sell the house.

Due to her washing out a small, dirty vase that no one at her auction had purchased, and dumping the water into her garden, she becomes saddled with a ghost whose remains had been in the vase (which turned out to be his urn). The ghost is that of a 1930s gangster, who is mouthy, sarcastic, and unsurprisingly, has the morals of a gangster.

She and the gangster, Frankie, make a trip out to one of his old hangouts on the outskirts of town, where Verity is caught by Ellis Wydell, police chief and brother to her ex-fiance, who owns the property.  He eventually discovers she has some connection to the afterlife, and hires her to get rid of whatever ghost is haunting his property, because he is trying to convert it to a restaurant and can't afford all of the damage the ghost is causing.

As he has offered her $20,000, and she'll be able to pay off her debt without selling her grandmother's house, she accepts. She finds that there are several ghosts resident  in the old speakeasy, from several eras in time, but only one is in a violent destructive mood.

This is an interesting but light read.  I'm not really a big fan of paranormal books, but I enjoyed this one.  I will probably read more in the series, but not sure I would make an effort to search them out.

This is number 13 of my Craving for Cozies Challenge.