A Ghostwriter's Guide to Murder

 

A Ghostwriter's Guide to Murder by Melinda Mullet (2025) 311 pages

Maeve Gardner is a ghostwriter for writer Harlan Oak's mystery series which features PI Simon Hill. She would love to be able to write her own books, but for now, this pays the bills. Her boyfriend of 4 years, Gav, had cheated on her four months ago, and when they split up, she got the small boat that she lives in on a London canal, along with The Captain, a large dog who adores her (and sausage rolls).

The Captain draws her attention to a tire that serves as a bumper along the canal wall where she parks. She finds 50,000 quid stashed in the tire. She ends up returning the cash to the hiding place and fetching the police. When they return, the cash is gone and Gav is dead in the water. Maeve is the prime suspect.

The story gets better from here: her friends are pulling out all the stops to investigate because they don't trust the over-worked police to do so: The computer guru who used to work for the police dept., the ex-navy pub owner, and a proprietor of a floating bookstore. The friends are close, but still have secrets from each other that they don't press each other about. There are also a couple of Wiccan boat neighbors for good cheer (and to clean up auras). Eventually Gav's dart team gets involved, too, but mostly to find out who killed their mate. 

As the friends get stuck, from time to time, Maeve conjures up the fictional PI, Simon Hill, to help get them unstuck. I found this to be quite the page turner!