Review of:  The Spider House (A Madam Celeste Mystery)

Linda Anthony Hill

Very intriguing elements, would appeal best to YA audience!

Reviewed in the United States on August 21, 2019

This mystery sounded really intriguing to me, and it lived up to my expectations in a lot of ways but had shortcomings as well.

Pros:

• Great paranormal elements & information (a seance, hellhounds, the chupacabra, psychics & ghosts - yippee!);
• Loved the ghost hunter element
• Great premise with Madam Celeste & Emma her apprentice - would love to learn more about what's in the handwritten spell books!
• Even though I hadn't read the first book in the series, the author did a wonderful job giving us a prologue outlining the basic premise and I didn't feel I missed anything from not having read the 1st one. Works as a stand-alone which is hard to find!

 Cons:

• Too much unnecessary dialogue;
• The characters didn't quite seem fleshed out enough (I had a difficult time keeping them all straight at first as so many were introduced at once);
• The murder didn't occur until over halfway through the book.

 I can imagine this would have wonderful appeal especially to a YA audience as it's a clean mystery with mostly younger characters. I loved the fact that the author actually lives in a haunted old house that gives her inspiration for her mysteries and ghost stories!