A Ghost Hunter’s Guide to Solving a Murder: Historical Cozy With A Twist

Last Updated on April 22, 2026

This is a really interesting book review to write because, on the face of it, both the title – A Ghost Hunter’s Guide to Solving a Murder – and the cover would suggest that this is very much a cozy mystery with maybe a paranormal twist.

And yet, the story itself is wildly different from those first impressions. And, in fact, neither has a ghost hunter, nor much of a murder to solve.

So why the disconnect? It’s not that the book itself isn’t a decent read; it just doesn’t have a clear and obvious genre, which is why I suspect that the publishers have really leaned into the cozy side of things.

I appreciate that may not make much sense without knowing more about the book, so let me take you through the story, and then you can decide for yourself if this is a bit of a mismatch.

Cornwall 1914

First off, this is a historical novel, set in Cornwall in 1914, just as the First World War is getting underway.

Alma Timperley, a young woman living in London, discovers that she has inherited a hotel in Cornwall, left to her by an aunt she didn’t even know existed.

It transpires that Alma’s aunt, Gladys, had the gift of being able to communicate with the dead and that the hotel, the Timperley Spiritualist Hotel, was where most of her business was conducted from.

Wealthy, mostly women, came to the hotel to contact their loved ones who had passed, and with so many soldiers dying on the front lines, the hotel is busier than ever.

Helping Alma adjust to her new life is her aunt’s solicitor, James Nascent, and his assistant, Mrs Neal.

What Alma hasn’t told them, though, is that she also has the same abilities as her late aunt and can, if she wants to, contact the dead.

The problem is that Alma doesn’t use her psychic abilities, and hasn’t done so since her school days.

With her new life well underway, two things then become apparent. The first is that maybe Gladys Timperley didn’t just have an accident but was murdered.

The second is that there is potentially a German spy working in the hotel. In fact, as the reader, you know there it – and who it is.

The War

Now that we know who the German spy is, we meander through the story as he communicates with the enemy, all in a bid to ensure that the port of Falmouth can successfully be blown up, giving Germany the edge in the war.

This takes up a significant portion of the book, leaving Alma behind as she endlessly considers which male suitor she thinks would make the better prospect. Forget the hotel, and the spy, and the murder of her aunt, Alma wants to find herself a man! Eye roll.

Along the way, there is another murder, the police start to close in on the spy, and it finally dawns on Alma that there are more important things than looking good and getting a ring on her finger.

The Confusing Title

Of course, I left out huge swathes of the book in the summary above, but I just wanted to give you an outline of the story so that you could understand where my initial confusion came from.

Alma is not a ghost hunter; in fact, she doesn’t use her psychic abilities at all until her life is on the line. She also doesn’t ‘solve a murder’, not least because for about 85% of the book, she wasn’t even aware there was one.

The main crux of the plot of A Ghost Hunter’s Guide to Solving a Murder is a German spy doing what spies do best – passing messages back and forth, trying to scupper the Allied forces.

If you are expecting a paranormal historical cozy, then this book doesn’t hit the mark.

Alma is initially written a relatively formidable character, but sadly, any sass she may have had at the beginning slowly ebbs away in favor of her dating life.

She’s also a bit of an idiot. She knows there’s a spy at the hotel, she even narrows it down to two people, and yet still insists on going out with one of them.

Heck, even when he drops an odd word of German into the conversation, it doesn’t raise a red flag.

And that’s the problem. Once you realise that the leading lady has been written as a bit of an airhead, it’s tricky to keep reading it with any interest.

Thumbs Up or Down?

If you want a book reflected in the title, this isn’t for you. If, however, you want a pretty decent, albeit flawed, novel about catching a German spy in 1914, this is a decent enough read.

It’s not John Le Carré by any means, but it’s not the worst book I’ve ever read either.

If I had to score it, it would be two and a half out of five, and I’m not sure I would be interested in any further adventures from Alma unless the author decided to actually write her as a three-dimensional person and not some bimbo on the hunt for a man.