I firstly want to thank Alice and Atlantic Books, Corvus for giving me the opportunity to read this as a ARC early.

This story reminded me of a mix between Ghosts, Knives out and randall and hopkirk (deceased).

I love a good mystery and this did not disappoint, I loved the pop culture references and how the characters had their own story to tell. Sophie was hilarious and loved her comments she made. I found myself also trying to solve the mystery as I read. And I didn't predict who the mystery ghost would be!

Alice has a unique and easy to follow writing style that kept me following. Some parts had me fully laughing out loud. Others had me on the edge wondering what was gonna happen.

Cannot wait to read more of her work in the future.

"Grave Expectations" by Alice Bell is a fun crime book with a twist: Claire and her deceased best friend Sophie investigate a murder in this book which I hope will turn into a series. I can easily imagine this quirky duo solving many a cosy crime and possibly having their own tv series.

Claire Hendricks makes her living as a medium. While some may scoff at the idea of talking to dead people Claire has an advantage. Her best friend Sophie is a ghost. Sophie was Claire's living best friend who disappeared at the age of 17. Shortly afterwards she appeared to Claire confirming that she had been murdered but didn’t know how or by who. She hasn’t left Claire's side since.
Claire is asked by an old University friend to provide the “entertainment” at a family party at the Wellington-Forge family estate The Cloisters. Finding that such an old house has many ghosts isn’t a surprise but discovering that one of them could be someone who was recently murdered is a shock.
Together with Basher and Alex Wellington-Forge Claire and Sophie set out to find out the identity of the victim and the killer.

This was a joyous read with a great and original premise. Claire is guided by the ghost of her best friend Sophie who died as a teenager and therefore remains as one as Claire matures. The dynamic between the two of them is touching and funny and innovative. When they get involved in a murder mystery the interactions between Sophie and other ghosts, Sophie and Claire, and Claire relaying what Sophie is saying is so cleverly done that you don't even question it. With secondary characters that are fully fleshed out, a narrative structure that is super tight and pacy, a lot of humour, a touch of pathos and a satisfactory conclusion there is so much to like about this novel.

I received an ARC of Grave Expectations courtesy of NetGalley in return for an honest review. I was intrigued to read this as the premise sounded original and definitely something I would be interested in. Unfortunately I didnt enjoy reading this at all. I didn't find any of the characters engaging, it was also hard to keep track of who was related to/had what relationship to who. Early on I found myself drawn toward Sophie as I thought she was interesting and had an intriguing back story but that soon wore off and she quickly became very annoying due to the fact that every second word she uttered appeared to be "Ohmigod" I didn't count but I would be willing to wager that this infuriating phrase was used somewhere between 20-30 times.

Definitely a fun read. I couldn't put the book down once I'd started it. I enjoyed the characters and their interactions with one another. The 'mystery' is also solved very realistically, and not as though the main characters are geniuses at observation or something like that. It was also quite funny how the characters discussed tropes of murder mysteries and how they thought it would play out and how it actually did. I really hope there is a sequel, because I want to find out what actually happened with Sophie.

Three stars for a solidly enjoyable mystery. The fourth is because I will definitely read anything else by Alice Bell, and that's saying something.

Enjoyed this fun read, was written well. Liked the murder mystery twists and the characters! Thank you for the advance copy.

The premise of this book is very appealing but I felt rather let down. Not sure why. It could be because of the gap in the age between Claire (30) working as a medium and Sophie (17) was friends with Claire when they were at school until she was murdered and she's barely left Claires side since.

The first few chapters were ok. Learning who everyone was etc but then it just seemed to really slow down for me. To the point where, I started reading something else and only picked this book up again because I'd finished the other one and wanted to tidy up my kindle.

If you like a "cozy" murder mystery, you'll love this but it wasn't for me.

𝗚𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗯𝘆 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹
𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: 𝟰⭐️
𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗿𝗲: 𝗠𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘆
𝗬𝗲𝗮𝗿: 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝟰𝘁𝗵 𝗠𝗮𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯
𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗳 𝗦𝘆𝗻𝗼𝗽𝘀𝗶𝘀: 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘚𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯’𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴. 𝘈 𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘯 𝘥𝘢𝘺, 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤 𝘮𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘺. 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 30 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘶𝘮, 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘵 𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘥𝘦? 𝘏𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘚𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘦, 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘧 17. 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘱 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵… 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘱 𝘪𝘯.

This is yet another fun, light, easy read. I’m sure some of you could read this in one sitting.

It has enough suspense to get me to turn those pages but I did feel the middle fell flat with the murder mystery taking a back seat whilst the characters were getting to know each other and doing every day things

I have a lot of unanswered questions and I’m not sure if that’s due to the author intending this to be a murder investigation series? As I want to know what happened to Sophie, we all know she was murdered and come back as a ghost and has been by Claire’s side since her ghost materialised and the book does touch on moments where Claire and Sophie should talk more about their own situation but then it flits right back to the main ‘murder mystery of The Cloisters’. I could have quite happily read a book all about Sophie and Claire’s relationship. I loved their banter and how they relied on one another.

I also enjoyed the pop culture references, so overall an enjoyable read. I recommend if you fancy something easy to read.

Thanks to @netgalley and #atlanticbooks for sending me this eBook. It’s released on 4th May!

A fantastic quirky fun book from Alice. I believe a first for me from this Author but I look forward to reading more.

Very enjoyable supernatural / detective story - at times very funny, at times rather sad. Great central characters - dead and alive - and a good wee mystery.

At 44 a few of the cultural references went over my head - slightly depressing - but not so many that I was put off.

Very much looking forward to further investigations

I loved reading this book, a great storyline with characters who I instantly felt drawn to. Whilst it was a serious storyline as there was a lot at stake there were also moments that made me laugh out loud! Brilliantly written - I hope we get to hear more from them soon on the next adventure.

A modern day murder mystery.

There's been a murder at The Cloisters, the family estate of Claire's university friend Figgy. Figgy's family is your typical multi-generational family, they loathe each other so much, they only come together for gatherings when necessary for a birthday or holiday. Medium Claire was supposed to be the entertainment for grandmother's birthday party this year. But then she and her ghost-sidekick Sophie find out that someone was murdered by a family member at last year's party. Together with family members Basher and Alex they now need to find out who was murdered on the family estate before the murderer can catch up with them.

I really liked the concept and the first few chapters. When the hunt for the murderer starts in earnest though, it seems that the mystery takes a back-burner. We get lots of scenes between the characters getting to know each other and doing mundane things. This slowed down the pace of the book for me.

Furthermore, the pop-culture references and dialogues seemed to be targeted at an audience that is younger than 40 years of age. I'm not saying people over 40 might not enjoy the book, but the dialogues might grate a bit.

Nevertheless, this is a murder mystery where the protagonists have to work for the clues, they don't fall out of the sky, and the characters get some things wrong and blunder several interviews with suspects. This made the murder mystery part of the story much more realistic..

Murder Most Foul..,
Freelance medium Claire Hendricks has a more than unusual gift. Invited to provide ‘entertainment’ at the country house of an old friend it soon becomes clear that something is amiss. Claire is soon investigating a case of murder most foul alongside her resident spirit Sophie and several of the more favoured members of the country house party. Unique tongue in cheek mystery with a deftly drawn cast of eccentric and eclectic characters and an edgy narrative with a thread of wry humour throughout. A quirky, affectionate and modern homage to the traditional country house murder mystery.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

Claire is a medium and has been hired as entertainment for a wealthy family who live in a huge house. Claire has a spirit guide called Sophie. Sophie was murdered when she was 17 and was Claire’s best friend up until her murder. Claire and Sophie find out that someone has died at the house, and must find out who died and who killed them.

This was a really fun read. I wasn’t quite sure how it would be as I’ve not read anything at all like this. It was humorous and made me laugh out loud in places. The characters were all really engaging and really down to earth, and you could imagine these people as your friends. The relationship between Claire and Sophie was brilliant, and they really are chalk and cheese, but their unusual communication just works and makes the story brilliant. An excellent read.

I enjoyed the premise of this book an amatuer sluth with her ghost partner/BFF it made the story unique and fun the mystery was pretty good too and enjoyable to help them solve. The book was a bit long for my tastes but overall I thought it was fantastic!

Much thanks to #netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this ARC
All thoughts and opinions are my own

Rating: 2.1/5

I was drawn to this novel by its premise. Claire Hendricks, a woman in her early 30s, is eking out a living as a medium accompanied by her 17-year-old spirit guide, Sophie. But this hasn't been a recent association - they were close friends at school until Sophie met her untimely death. Now the pair will find themselves investigating the murder of somebody else. This scenario struck as fresh and fun - perhaps a little reminiscent of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) for the modern generation.

It started brightly and seemed to be living up to my hopes and expectations. The style is certainly more likely to appeal to an audience at the younger end of the age scale - perhaps 35 and below. In a number of respects this could almost be YA (Young Adult) fiction, although there are far too many profanities in the text for that to be the case overall. Perhaps it is because I do not fall into that age group that I found myself tiring of the narrative style and the teenaged humour vibe. Certainly by the time I had reached the 40% mark I had begun to find it grating rather than entertaining and I was finding it quite tiresome.

The mystery element of the story is okay, but certainly nothing special. For large portions of the book it is almost something of an aside - little more than vehicle to allow the author to pen scenes around it. Regular readers of "whodunnits" will probably have picked up on one of the key aspects of the mystery well before the formal reveal.

If you are in the 18-35 age group then this may possibly make for entertaining reading, but I suspect older readers are less likely to find it particularly appealing.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for supplying an ARC in return for an honest review.

Very entertaining and well written.

Many thanks for allowing me to read and review this terrific book.

This was such a fun read, with a really interesting twist on the typical murder mystery with a nice supernatural twists. The main characters were really interesting and well written, I liked learning about Claire and Sophie's history together and seeing them interact as best friends added a nice light-heartedness to the book. I also really liked Basher and Alex, however I found the rest of the characters generic and their speech was a bit cringey at times, especially the other members of the family. The mystery itself was really intriguing and unique and I loved Claire and Sophie as a "detective" duo, I hope to read more of them.

Thus unique book was definitely a good read and was so funny. The characterisation was really great (with great diversity) and the plot was so intriguing. Alice pulled all the surprises!

The only thing I found frustrating was the characters constantly forgetting clues they'd found, it got to the point where it was really unbelievable. It really slowed down the plot. Apart from this, however, I absolutely loved this read and would like a sequel!

Thank you again NetGalley, Alice Bell and Atlantic Books the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.