Gone With The Ghost by Erin McCarthy Release Day

Gone With the Ghost by Erin McCarthy
Series: Murder By Design, book 1

May 23, 2017

Blurb

Bailey Burke has had a rough six months it’s not easy thinking your romantic overtures toward your best friend caused him to kill himself. Except that’s exactly what happened. Ryan is very much dead, having shot himself with his own police-issued gun. Guilt and grief shouldn’t cause hallucinations though, but six months after Ryan went into the ground, Bailey is freaking out and swearing his ghost is standing in her kitchen. Which he is!

Ryan claims he didn’t commit suicide but was murdered, and he needs Bailey to help him find his killer so he can earn his ticket out of purgatory. Which contrary to national opinion is not their hometown of Cleveland. Ryan’s counting on a stairway to heaven, as opposed to wings, since that might be a little unmanly for a cop, even a dead one.

An expert in home design, with her own staging business, Bailey can tell you where to place a couch to improve flow and comfort, but solving a crime? Not her area of expertise. But with help from Ryan’s former partner, Marner, she is unraveling the mystery of what happened to Ryan that day and unwittingly putting herself in grave danger.

Buy Now

Amazon (Kindle) | B&N (Nook) | Kobo | iTunes | Googleplay

Crime Scene Investigation and Home Staging are Practically the Same?

My two favorite TV shows (that aren’t fictional character dramas) are HGTV’s Fixer Upper and Forensic Files. Not exactly the same. Or are they? Both are about the details. About looking beyond what you initially see and peeling back the layers for the potential, in the case of Fixer Upper, and the truth on Forensic Files. Anyone who has the eye of Joanna Gaines for every last detail could easily be applied to detective work, in my mind.

When I created the character of Bailey Burke in Gone With the Ghost, I envisioned her as neurotic, obsessed with every last detail, and a “dog with a bone” personality, which makes her a decent amateur sleuth. Even if she is always wearing high heels where it’s completely inappropriate, and is afraid of blood. I’m not sure when or where I decided to make her a spiritual medium with a dead best friend.

But when you pair a dead detective with a detail-obsessed home stager, killers beware. Here is a brief snippet from Gone With the Ghost:

Maybe it was time for me to start listing the facts of the case as we knew them. Pulling out a pad of paper from my handbag, I gave it a header with my Bailey Burke, “Put it Where?” pen.

Evidence of Suicide

Will (actual result of lust, not depression)

Texts (what did they say?)

Location (coincidence?)

Lack of motive for murder?

Powder burns

When I wrote that Ryan stopped reading over my shoulder. “Hold it. Powder burns on what? My hands?”

“You tell me, Detective Conroy. But I distinctly recall DeAngelo talking about powder burns.”

“You had a hell of a conversation with him, didn’t you?” Ryan’s blue eyes were curious, his nostrils flaring just a little.

“At the time, it seemed disgusting, macabre, and the punishment for all my earthly sins, but in hindsight, yes, it does come off as pretty odd.”

“I think it’s time for you to pay a little visit to DeAngelo.”

Yuck. I pictured DeAngelo’s smarmy grin and that tuft of chest hair that always burst above his top button. Double yuck. Seeing him twice in the same day seemed like cruel and unusual punishment. “I was afraid you were going to say that. I’m not even really drunk anymore, which is a shame. He’s the kind of guy you need to see through wine goggles.”

“I’d do it for you.”

“I know.” And I’d do anything for Ryan.

About the Author

USA Today and New York Times Bestselling author Erin McCarthy first published in 2002 and has since written over seventy novels and novellas in teen fiction, new adult romance, paranormal, and contemporary romance. Erin is a RITA finalist and an ALA Reluctant Young Reader award recipient, and is both traditionally and indie published.