This was a cozy mystery with a nifty unique take! I kept seeing the beautiful covers for this series come up as friends read it and being a music lover, knew I had to read it. Gethsemane Brown is a talented classic violinist from the US who has moved to Ireland to take a teaching job at a rural school for high school boys. Their orchestra is in sorry shape and there’s a big competition coming up.

If you’re a music nerd, you will LOVE the music references and little bits about rehearsals and competitions.

There’s also the complication that in Gethsemane’s new living quarters, there seems to be a ghost (apparently, she can see the dead!) and he wants her to track down the person who killed him and framed it as a suicide 25 years ago. So, some amateur sleuthing to do. The beginning takes a bit to gain momentum, but once things got going, I really enjoyed this. Looking forward to book two.

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader.
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I enjoyed the Irish setting more than the plot and went online to learn how to pronounce all the Irish names. Gesthemane Brown was a strong character, though a bit too much at times with her whiskies and lies. Eamon the ghost was a rather typecast Irishman with the beautiful eyes, "Darling" this and that, charm laced with anger. I would have liked more development of the youth orchestra characters. A light and mostly cozy mystery. ( )

Not gunna lie, I went looking for this when I was supposed to be doing a "Diverse December" reading challenge and uh well I'm a month late but it doesn't change how much I loved this book! First of all, I adore The Ghost and Mrs Muir in all its iterations (but especially the 1960s TV show) and this book was just chock full of delightful TGAMM vibes. I'm besotted. Gethsemane and I also share a love for Irishmen with nice eyes so that and the cozy mystery plot made it a heavenly match for me!

There were a few weak points, the action scenes needed a bit of work and I figured out the mystery about halfway through, but it was a great little book and I'm about to make my way over to Amazon to get book two!! ( )

For the most part, this worked for me. I found Gethsemane a likeable protagonist, and the setting is lovely and cozy. The way in which the story resolves stretches credibility completely (though it feels weird to say that about a book that involves ghosts) but I can forgive that point. ( )

The whodunit was a little too transparent but the characters are so lovable. This sucked me right into the world and I can't wait to read the next one. ( )