The Ghost and the Femme Fatale

A film festival gone noir gives bookshop owner Penelope Thornton-McClure and her ghostly companion a big screen caper to solve in this Haunted Bookshop mystery from Cleo Coyle, writing as Alice Kimberly.

The Movie Town Theater is holding its first ever Film Noir Festival, with Pen handling book sales for the guest speakers, including screen actress Hedda Geist. The legendary femme fatale has been out of the spotlight for decades. Unfortunately, the moment she steps back into it, she’s nearly killed. Then other guests start to die, and Penelope wants to know why her little town’s Film Noir weekend has taken a truly dark turn.

With local police on the wrong track, Penelope enlists the help of Jack Shepard, private investigator. Okay, so Jack hasn’t had a heartbeat since 1949, when he was gunned down in what is now Pen’s store. But the hard-boiled ghost actually remembers Hedda’s dark past and Penelope’s sure he can help solve this case—even if he and his license did expire more than fifty years ago …