E.J. Copperman - Ghost in the Wind (A Haunted Guesthouse Mystery)

Praise for the National Bestselling Haunted Guesthouse Mysteries

Wonderful... A laugh-out-loud, fast-paced and charming tale.

Kate Carlisle, New York Times bestselling author of the Bibliophile Mysteries

Fans of Charlaine Harris and Sarah Graves will relish this original, laugh-laden paranormal mystery featuring reluctant ghost whisperer Alison Kerby, a Topper for the twenty-first century.

Julia Spencer-Fleming, New York Times bestselling author of Through the Evil Days

A couple of demanding ghosts, a quick-witted heroine, a creaky old house and a delightful cast of characters... What a fun and enjoyable story!

Leann Sweeney, New York Times bestselling author of the Cats in Trouble Mysteries

A standout series.

The Mystery Reader

When combined with the authors trademark humor and keen writing, readers will be wishing that the novel and the series never end.

Kings River Life Magazine

A delightful ride... Funny, charming and thoroughly enjoyable.

Spinetingler Magazine

A cocktail of haunted humor and a killer mystery... Even the ghosts and their former lives are written to perfection.

Fresh Fiction

You wont want to miss this ghostly cozy mystery, full of enough wit, charm and supernatural hijinks to keep you turning the pages well past midnight.

MyShelf.com

Berkley Prime Crime titles by E. J. Copperman

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEED

AN UNINVITED GHOST

OLD HAUNTS

CHANCE OF A GHOST

THE THRILL OF THE HAUNT

INSPECTOR SPECTER

GHOST IN THE WIND

Specials

A WILD GHOST CHASE

AN OPEN SPOOK

An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014

GHOST IN THE WIND

A Berkley Prime Crime Book / published by arrangement with the author.

Copyright 2015 by Jeffrey Cohen.

Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

BERKLEY PRIME CRIME and the PRIME CRIME design are trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

For more information, visit penguin.com.

eBook ISBN: 978-1-101-63466-0

PUBLISHING HISTORY

Berkley Prime Crime mass-market edition / December 2015

Cover illustration by Dominick Finelle.

Cover design by Judith Lagerman.

Photography: flock of birds Alexuss K / Shutterstock; painted background istockphoto / Thinkstock.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Version_1

For John, Paul, George and Ringo.
Maybe especially Ringo.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This is the seventh Haunted Guesthouse novel. Just typing that sort of amazes me. The reception to these books has been utterly astonishing to their author, and I can never repay the trust some peoplemostly you readershave shown in me.

The first among those readers is Shannon Jamieson Vazquez, the stalwart and indispensable editor of the Haunted Guesthouse series, without whom you would be reading someone elses book right now. Shannon saw the potential in the series at its idea phase and has shaped everything youve read in it up to this very moment. Shell probably have a few changes to suggest after I submit these acknowledgments, and shell be right about those, too. Cant thank you enough, Shannon.

Also improving those rough first drafts is Yvette Grant, production editor, for making this look like a book. When Im done with it, the thing looks like a collection of random words cut out of magazines like a ransom note. And thanks to my copyeditor, Deborah Goemans, who did her very best to make sure things made sense and were spelled correctly, and who curbed my compulsive use of commas. I cant help it. Im just a comma freak. Thank them for what they do, or youd be reading a book two hundred pages longer just for the commas.

Dominic Finelle came up with yet another amazing cover that manages against all odds to surpass the ones that came before it. One of the best days in the process is seeing what hes come up with this time based on my wholly inadequate suggestions. Im not responsible for the covers on these books, folks. He is. If a book cover could get a standing ovation, these would be the ones Id be out of my chair applauding.

Of course, the usual thanks to the people who made this series begin and continue. Christina Hogrebe of the Jane Rotrosen Agency read the manuscript for the first book in my Double Feature series, and asked Shannon to look at it. Here we are ten books later.

Josh Getzler, Danielle Burby, Tanusri Prasanna and all the gang at HSG Agency make it possible for me to do this for a living and are actual human beings at the same time. Its nice to do business with people you like. When theyre also really good at what they do, that puts it over the top. And no one is a better companion than Josh for a trip to the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center.

To all the reviewers (even the not-as-happy ones) who take the time to read and discuss the books, thanks for your dedication and your honesty. Writers will tell you they never read reviews. Theyre lying.

Most of all, thanks to the loyal readers of the Haunted Guesthouse series. You make this happen, time and time again. Prepare to be thanked for the eighth time, right around this time next year in a page remarkably similar to this one. You are never unappreciated.