Matt Addax has approached Mel to take over the restoration of a house he and his business partner, Kenneth Kostow, began. Mel agrees to take a walk through the house and write up an estimate. As she and Matt are walking through the house, Kenneth stumbles out of an upstairs room, his hand cut off and nails from a nail gun piercing his abdomen.  

Kenneth was never one of Mel’s favorite people and she can’t figure out why, after he dies, he has chosen her to haunt.  Kenneth cannot recall anything about his accident (as the police call it) or murder (as Mel calls it) nor can he remember much of the events leading up to the day before his death. 

Mel learns that her company’s name has been forged on permit documents which, if Kenneth’s death is ruled an accident, could ruin her good name, if not her company. With the help of some of her restoration colleagues, Mel begins to look into the history of the house, and the investors who helped finance the purchase of the old Victorian. 

A mysterious package found in the walls makes Mel curious and may have raised the curiosity of whoever killed Kenneth because a series of incidents occur in places where Matt has stored things from the house.  Wanting to clear her name, clear Matt’s name and get started renovating a gorgeous Victorian, Mel finds herself investigating much more than the previous owners of this Pacific Heights house.

 Mel is an energetic, curious woman who has a strong sense of family. As she stays with her father , she welcomes her ex-stepson into the family, along with Matt’s son.  Once she accepts the fact that Kenneth’s ghost is not going anyway in the foreseeable feature, they develop a good rapport, a better one than they had in life. With an anthropology background, the research aspect of the restorations appeal to Mel, as does the satisfaction of doing a good and accurate job. 

The mystery that accompanies Kenneth’s murder is interesting, though it takes a while to come in to focus. It takes Mel awhile to get in the groove of investigating Kenneth’s death, but once she does, the pieces all come in to focus and her punch list becomes very short – trap a killer before he kills again.                                                                  

--Jennifer Monahan Winberry