The Key to a Killer by Olivia Blacke (2026)
If I'd forgotten how I became totally attached to young, newly-adult Ruby and her ghostly roommate Cordelia, this book served as a delightful reminder. . Sharing the deceased Cordelia's Boston apartment (not in the best of neighborhoods) the oddball dead & alive duo has managed to solve two murders in this this series' previous two books. The new mystery confronting them in the latest entry raises the stakes considerably. They're out to uncover who's really responsible for Cordelia's supposedly 'accidental' suicide death from a toxic mix of alcohol and sleeping pills.
This is a finely crafted step up for this series, deepening the characters, creating a colorful cast of suspects amid the cutthroat high-tech world, and filled with underlying wit and genuine heartfelt emotion. And in the carefully created details of Cordelia's haunting abilities, and limitations, author Olivia Blacke has devised her very own unique 'Guide for the Deceased in a Tough Big City'.
The mystery here somehow relates back to Ruby's current and Cordelia's last place of employment, a freewheeling little software development firm overshadowed by a bigger, ruthless competitor. There's enough backstabbing, adultery, and stolen corporate secrets going on to fuel an entire soap opera. So the question remains.......did any of these shenanigans lead directly to Cordelia's body being found in the apartment's tiny bathtub?
There's endless amounts of fun, heart and ongoing suspense in Ruby and Cordelia's growing relationship. Cordelia has now devoted her afterlife to looking after and protecting the sweetly naive Ruby, who's not quite prepared to navigate adulthood. And there's more depth, some humor and understated sadness in Cordelia's encounters a fellow Bostonian ghost and her troubled but still loving ties to her wayward, chronically criminal younger bother Ian.
That's an awful lot of stuff to be going on in one cozy mystery and that's what keeps Ruby and Cordelia's cases always 4 star reads for me. And I am pretty sure that those trying this series out for the first time, will want to catch up on the the first two right away.
This is a finely crafted step up for this series, deepening the characters, creating a colorful cast of suspects amid the cutthroat high-tech world, and filled with underlying wit and genuine heartfelt emotion. And in the carefully created details of Cordelia's haunting abilities, and limitations, author Olivia Blacke has devised her very own unique 'Guide for the Deceased in a Tough Big City'.
The mystery here somehow relates back to Ruby's current and Cordelia's last place of employment, a freewheeling little software development firm overshadowed by a bigger, ruthless competitor. There's enough backstabbing, adultery, and stolen corporate secrets going on to fuel an entire soap opera. So the question remains.......did any of these shenanigans lead directly to Cordelia's body being found in the apartment's tiny bathtub?
There's endless amounts of fun, heart and ongoing suspense in Ruby and Cordelia's growing relationship. Cordelia has now devoted her afterlife to looking after and protecting the sweetly naive Ruby, who's not quite prepared to navigate adulthood. And there's more depth, some humor and understated sadness in Cordelia's encounters a fellow Bostonian ghost and her troubled but still loving ties to her wayward, chronically criminal younger bother Ian.
That's an awful lot of stuff to be going on in one cozy mystery and that's what keeps Ruby and Cordelia's cases always 4 star reads for me. And I am pretty sure that those trying this series out for the first time, will want to catch up on the the first two right away.
4 stars (****).....an extra high quality cozy to warm you on those upcoming chilly nights.
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