The House on Widows Hill

June 1, 2020
The latest Ishmael Jones thriller finds the British secret agent (he also happens to be an extraterrestrial living among us as human) checking out an allegedly haunted house, vetting it for an interested buyer. Accompanied by his partner, Penny, and an assortment of colorful characters?including a celebrity ghost hunter and a newspaper reporter?Ishmael digs into the house's storied past. But after a seemingly inexplicable death, Ishmael realizes that the secrets of Harrow House could lie in its present, not in its past. This is a delightful series, a wonderful amalgam of horror, fantasy, science fiction, and mystery, well anchored in a solid reality by the cleverly designed and beautifully executed character of Ishmael Jones, who is constantly revealing interesting new facets of himself and who would make a great character in a movie (just sayin'). This thoroughly entertaining adventure works equally well with series followers and with newbies to the world of Ishmael Jones.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

May 18, 2020
British author Green’s humdrum ninth mystery featuring the disguised extraterrestrial known as Ishmael Jones finds Jones, who was transformed by alien technology into a simulacrum of a human after his spacecraft crashed in England in 1963, and Penny Belcourt, his love interest/investigative partner, still in Bath after the events of 2019’s Night Train to Murder. Their employer, the Organization, which specializes in “investigating weird cases and strange happenings, in return for guaranteed anonymity,” wants them while there to check out Harrow House, a supposedly haunted building “that no one dares turn their back on.” An unnamed higher-up in the Organization is interested in purchasing the house, and wants to know what he’d be getting into. Jones and Belcourt’s ghost-hunting coincides with efforts by a group of amateur investigators, one of whom ends up dead, giving the pair a murder to solve as well. A predicable plot builds to a disappointing solution to the murder. Paranormal mystery fans will be better served elsewhere. Agent: Joshua Bilmes, JabBerwocky.

May 15, 2020
An alien who doesn't believe in ghosts spends the night in a haunted--or is it?--house in Bath. The morning after solving the case of the killer in a railroad car relayed in Night Train to Murder (2020), Ishmael Jones and Penny Belcourt, his partner in life and work, are mulling how to spend their time in Bath after Penny polishes off her full English breakfast. Something about being an alien come to Earth makes all that junk less appealing to Ishmael, who's more invested in his paranormal but vaguely defined skill set and more distracted by the suggestion of Mr. Nemo, a mysterious psychic connected to their last investigation, that he's not the only one of his kind on Earth. That's certainly exciting news, but what does it mean? Before Ishmael can think through the who/what/where of his own life, he and Penny are approached by Mr. Whisper, a jauntily dressed man who's clearly also employed by the Organization. In the absence of Ishmael's boss, the Colonel, who isn't available to vouch for Mr. Whisper's account, the newcomer proposes a case that intrigues the couple: Look into the supposedly haunted Harrow House to see if there really is an on-site ghost or if it's all a rumor to scare away buyers. Penny would love to confirm her own belief in ghosts; Ishmael is more skeptical--sure, aliens, but ghosts?--yet willing to accede to Penny's interests. Their night of investigation teams them with a ghost hunter, a celebrity psychic, a cynical reporter, a self-proclaimed white witch, and a requisite murder that leads the whole group to wonder whether there's a human killer or something supernatural afoot. A fast, fun supernatural thriller that never takes itself too seriously.

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