REVIEW • Jenny’s Murder (Ghostly Echoes by William Ritter)

Ghostly Echoes

Jenny Cavanaugh, the ghostly lady of 926 Augur Lane, has enlisted the investigative services of her fellow residents to solve a decade-old murder–her own. Abigail Rook and her eccentric employer, R. F. Jackaby, dive into the cold case, starting with a search for Jenny’s fiancé, who went missing the night she died. But when a new, gruesome murder closely mirrors the events of ten years prior, Abigail and Jackaby realize that Jenny’s case isn’t so cold after all.

Fantasy and folklore mix with mad science as Abigail’s race to unravel the mystery leads her across the cold cobblestones of nineteenth-century New England, down to the mythical underworld, and deep into her colleagues’ grim histories to battle the most deadly foe she has ever faced.[/note]

myreview

[note note_color=”#BFD1D1″ text_color=”#ffffff”]I received this book for free from Algonquin Young Readers for review consideration. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.[/note]

First sentence: “Mr. Jackaby’s cluttered office spun around me.”

William Ritter does it again! Ghostly Echoes tops the previous books, and has become my favorite book of the series. *round of applause!*

In Ghostly Echoes, Lead supernatural investigator, R. F. Jackaby, and his assistant, Abigail Rook, are getting to the bottom of a cold case—a decade-old murder of the ghostly inhabitant of 926 Augur Lane, Jenny Cavanaugh. A string of murders have caught Jackaby and Abigail’s attention; they’re very similar to Jenny’s and her fiancé’s death and disappearance. As they investigate the new murders, they find themselves encountering a vampire, missing wives, lost souls, ferryman of Hell, and a big bad that had been building itself for a decade (and possibly longer).

Before you read any further about the goodness of Ghostly Echoes, please tell me you have read the previous two Jackaby books. Please! If you haven’t, here are my reasons why you should read Jackaby (the first book of the series).

WHAT YOU GET IN GHOSTLY ECHOES

Readers get a peek into the mysterious Jackaby’s history!

In the previous two books, Jackaby was an enigma; someone who gave readers more questions than answers. In Ghostly Echoes though? Readers actually learn about his past! Hooray! They’ll learn a little about his childhood, specifically a friendship that had a big impact on Jackaby, and how he became a seer. Even though it didn’t explore his history thoroughly, I was satisfied because the bits of information about Jackaby grounded him as a real character.

Readers learn about what happened to Jenny Cavanaugh the ghost.

Fans of this series been teased about Jenny Cavanaugh’s untimely death in the first two books, and in Ghostly Echoes, readers finally get to the bottom of this cold case. At the end of Beastly Bones, Jenny hired Jackaby and Abigail to investigate why she died and what happened to her fiancé. There have recent murders that are similar to Jenny’s death. Her cold case and the other murders involves so many supernatural forces working together to create chaos onto the world. It’s all linked together, and Jackaby and Abigail are there to figure out how and why.

There’s lots of familiar supernatural creatures who we never met before in the Jackaby series.

Unlike the previous books where we meet supernatural creatures readers aren’t thoroughly familiar with, Ghostly Echoes presents ones that readers will know about like vampires, shape shifters, and ferryman of Hell. I couldn’t get enough of these creatures and their purpose. They’re all connected, and when readers find out how, oh boy, prepare yourself.

They enter the Underworld.

That’s right, folks! You will see the Underworld. In what form? You gotta read this book to find out. I will just say that it’s part of the investigation, and that’s when things take a riveting turn.

A big villain has been pulling the strings for over a decade.

As Jackaby and Abigail investigate Jenny Cavanaugh’s death and the murders that are similar to her and her fiancé, they disappear a big villain that has been at play for probably decades, recruiting different types of people to aid in something that can possibly destroy the world. Who are they? What do they want? What is their endgame? You will want to know.

Should you read Ghostly Echoes? Yes. If you already read the previous Jackaby books, you should read Ghostly Echoes. You get an investigation of a cold case murder and recent murders that are similar to each other; Abigail Rook taking charge of the case; Jackaby’s history; the Underworld and lost souls; and so much more awesome things that’ll have you wanting more. (If you haven’t read the series, what are you waiting for?)