The Ghost and the Dead Man's Library

Praise for the first Haunted Bookshop Mystery

The Ghost and Mrs. McClure

“A deliciously charming mystery with a haunting twist!”

—Laura Childs, author of Motif for Murder

“Part cozy and part hard-boiled detective novel with traces of the supernatural, The Ghost and Mrs. McClure is just a lot of fun.”

—The Mystery Reader

“A charming, funny, and quirky mystery starring a suppressed widow and a stimulating ghost…He is hard boiled in the tradition of Philip Marlowe and she is a genteel Miss Marple; yet the two opposites make an explosive combination. Alice Kimberly definitely has a hit series if the first book is anything to go by.”

—Midwest Book Review

“What a delightful new mystery series! I was hooked from the start…I adored the ghost of Jack…Pairing him with the disbelieving Penelope is a brilliant touch.”

—Roundtable Reviews

“Quindicott’s enigmatic townspeople come alive in this quirky mystery and readers will eagerly anticipate future installments—and the continuing easy banter and romantic tension between Jack and Penelope.”

—Romantic Times

“Ms. Kimberly has penned a unique premise and cast of characters to hook us on her first of a series.”

—Rendezvous

Haunted Bookshop Mysteries by Alice Kimberly

THE GHOST AND MRS. MCCLURE

THE GHOST AND THE DEAD DEB

THE GHOST AND THE DEAD MAN’S LIBRARY

The Ghost

AND THE

Dead Man’s Library

ALICE KIMBERLY

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Sincerest thanks to Christine Zika, senior editor,

and John Talbot, literary agent,

for their “spirited” support!

Thanks also to Kimberly Lionetti

for the all-important start.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Although real places and institutions are mentioned in this book, they are used in the service of fiction. No character in this book is based on any person, living or dead, and the world presented is completely fictitious.

To Dad,

Antonio A. Alfonsi,

for being a good man in a bad world.

What you need, young woman, is a trip around the Horn with a southeaster tearing the guts out of you and all hands on deck, with the sea coming over green for three nights and three days—then you’d sleep in sacking and be thankful.

—The Ghost and Mrs. Muir by R. A. Dick

(a.k.a. Josephine Aimee Campbell Leslie)

PROLOGUE

There was a sad fellow over on a barstool talking to the bartender, who was polishing a glass and listening with that plastic smile people wear when they are trying not to scream.

—Philip Marlowe in The Long Good bye by

Raymond Chandler, 1949

New York City

October 18, 1946

BAXTER KERNS THE Third called Jack Shepard at noon and invited him to dinner at six.

Jack left his cramped office early, ducked into his flat, changed into his best double-breasted, checked the safety on his gat, and headed into the chilly concrete night. He would have taken a cab uptown, but he was close to tapsville, so for a single silver buffalo, he jumped the Third Avenue el instead then hoofed it from Forty- Second.

The Madeleine was one of those private clubs in Midtown, near the hotel with the big, round table, where that literati crew used to drink and shoot their mouths off. The place reeked of money, like all the joints on University Club Row. Stone lions at the entrance, stone-faced doorman to match.

Inside Jack found the typical masculine decor: polished wainscoting and leather armchairs; oak side tables littered with finely carved pipes, neatly folded newspapers. Overseeing it all, a row of iron-haired gentlemen, rendered in dull oils, staring dully down at their living counterparts.

Jack didn’t know what Baxter Kerns looked like, but that wasn’t a problem. In a joint that served dinner with enough extra silverware to start your own hock shop, Jack was a dead giveaway. His lace-ups may have been polished, but they’d pounded far too much pavement. And although his suit was newly pressed, it was cheap goods among cliff dwelling executives who didn’t wear second-rate gear.