HAUNTING LICENSE

A woman who’s moved from Massachusetts to the Gulf Coast town of Haven increases the already-impressive number of corpses she’s found during her first year in sunny Florida.

Inheriting the Haven House Inn from “mysterious benefactor” Penelope Josephine Gray has proven a mixed blessing for 27-year-old Maureen Doherty. Like most of Haven’s residences, the inn is full of ghosts. But the spirits who haunt Haven House are a fairly respectful lot, even if the scent of tobacco in the elevator tells Maureen when Reggie’s been breaking the hotel’s no-smoking rule again. Molly, Gert, Sam, and George, Maureen’s flesh-and-blood staff, are a dedicated if sometimes quarrelsome lot. Executive chef Ted Carr make Maureen’s pulse race, and his culinary skills make her taste buds tingle. Though it’s been a journey getting the century-old building up and running, Maureen’s greatest challenge this time comes from outside the inn. While walking her golden retriever, Finn, along the beach, she discovers the body of Eddie Manuel, owner of the charter boat Tightline. Eddie’s is the third corpse Maureen has stumbled across since her arrival, and local police detective Frank Hubbard is getting tired of interviewing her. But he also wants to protect her from the risks of her own snoopiness. Danger predictably follows as an archeologist, a wildlife photographer, and possibly a gang of grave robbers descend on the inn. In response, Maureen sleepwalks through the investigation, letting everything from Penelope’s old trunk to a fishing tournament and a pregnant cat distract her from her mission.

Lots of local color, a little romance, but no real mystery.