If Walls Could Talk (Haunted Home Renovation Mysteries)

This is the first book in A Haunted Home Renovation Mystery Series by Juliet Blackwell.If the walls could talk they would tell a story of a murder at a party held at a beautiful old house in the San Francisco Bay area that is going to be remodeled by Melanie Turner's construction company. Melanie has taken over the running of the business from her father. She's very talented and quite satisfied doing remodeling of historic homes, and this house in Pacific Heights is a particularly challenging one. It's very run down and a party held there had good intentions of beginning to fix a few things up, but a mishap with a power tool sent one of the party guests into the hereafter. Melanie just happens to have the ability to see the non-living and to communicate with them, so of course the young man who died at the party shows up as a ghost to Melanie. He can't remember who killed him and now it becomes Melanie's job to help this poor soul figure out who it is.I've read the other books in this series so far, out of order, I might add, and I've found them to be highly enjoyable, filled with characters who are so likable and funny at times and often just a little quirky in a good way. Melanie certainly isn't your typical construction worker since she shows up in dressy party dresses with sparkly enhancements that catch other people's attention. But that's the way she likes to dress for a day on the job, hard hat and all. She lives at her father's where she has always lived, but her mother has passed away.The ghost in the story is quite interesting and fun because at first he isn't sure he's dead and doesn't like the other people around him. He can't figure out what happened to him, but Melanie helps him to remember as she works on the house with her construction crew. He kinds of floats into her space when he wants to talk or ask questions and sometimes Melanie could do without the paranormal interruptions when she's working, but without her, her ghostly friends wouldn't get the help she needs. This is a very fun series that I really enjoy.

Wow! Ms. Blackwell has managed to write a first in series that is a tightly woven tale, a rare feat indeed. Unlike most first books in what is meant to be a series, this book does not have a lot of unnecessary explanations about the place or characters. Instead, it is tightly written tale that introduces characters through the lead characters reactions to them, and settings through the eyes of a professional observing her work site.Mel is a 30- something divorcee, who, having recently taken over her father's construction business, heads up the historical renovation of a run down Victorian in the San Francisco area. Events coincide, leading her to discover that she can see and communicate with ghosts. She takes it upon herself to solve the murder of a business associate in order to clear her friend's name, and solves an age old mystery in the process.The book is filled with details about antiques and historical houses, which I personally loved, being a bit of a history buff, but the details are fairly relevant to the story. In fact, it is the putting together of these details that allows her to solve the mystery. I did find myself having to review the names of the characters more than once, as the characters sort of come and go throughout the story. I did guess the answer to the whodunit fairly early on, but the final answer revealed relationships between characters that I didn't immediately grasp, though in retrospect they seemed reasonably obvious, given the information the author supplied.Overall, this was a great mystery, and a really fun read.

This book is not like many of the other renovation/remodeling books. No long explanations of ways and techniques for remodels.The MC discovers she can see and talk to a ghost in the old house where he died after a night of drinking and a demo party hosted by a faded rock star.To complicate matters, the man who warned her not to marry her husband turned out to be right about him. And now she's back home, living with her father and running the family construction company. Something she had no plans to do.A delightful read and interesting characters. Thought I had the murderer figured out until boom, a twist and I was wrong.At a time we need an easy distraction and something not depressing this is the book.

Definitely worth reading. There's a lot to learn about the restoration of old homes as well as how to save and preserve items from the home to be compatible with the Green Energy movement. If you like Architecture or are interested in flipping homes this is very descriptive. I felt as if I was an observer in the story, one of the paranormal beings perhaps. I enjoyed the characters. This is a mystery so obviously someone is murdered. That's where the story begins. It's about paranormal activity and the man who was killed returns, but he can't remember who had reason to do him in. Like Agatha Christy's stories there's lots of suspects. I'm usually pretty good at discerning who might be the perpetrator,so read it to see if you can guess. The main character is in her 30's, & she's in the process of putting her life together. Her mother has passed & she has taken over her father's Construction Company that specializes in renovations of upscale homes in the area. She's intelligent, hard working and down to earth. She has a commonsense attitude & is adjusting to the difficulties of being at a new stage of her life. She's working through a failed relationship that ended in divorce. The perfect time for her to meet a man from her past. They share similar work & personal interests. He had tried to persuade her not to marry the man she eventually divorced a couple of years ago. They seem to be on track with a personal relationship. However,that could change...or not. It's a fun amusing story of a young woman renovating a Historical home trying to help a friend, adopting Dog", and the interactions of the characters and those who have passed beyond this world...leaving a mystery to be solved. Fun to read...interesting who "done it" even more interesting, Why....?

The author of the book is someone who has worked on renovating old houses in San Francisco, and has based her main character on that experience.Mel runs her family's building firm and they specialise in restoring Victorian mansions - structurally and in period detail on the decorations. This is not a magazine inspired yearning after colour schemes, but someone knowledgeable talking about period houses, their construction and how to restore them. It is interesting to learn some of the colour and history in San Francisco and that added to the book for me.The house is at the centre of the story, the restoration is one of the drivers of the plot, but it doesn't dominate. As in, if you find old houses interesting, there is plenty in the story for you, if you don't, I think that it won't get in the way. (Could be wrong there, since I do find old houses interesting.)The book has elements of murder mystery, a bit of romance (and troubled past relationships) and a ghost. It emerges in the story that Mel has seen ghosts on and off for a while. I wasn't so keen on the troubled past relationship bit of the plot, but it was done perfectly well, just not entirely to my taste - I enjoyed everything else.Conclusions - good light read. First one of Juliet Blackwell's books I've read. On a limited book budget with a large list of authors whose series I'm already following I'm not rushing out to buy the sequel, but I'd certainly consider buying it. Going to leave it six months, re-read this book and if I still like it, then I'll buy the sequel.

Made use of the freebee status of this book and was so pleased with the content that I paid hard English currency for Volume 2, Dead Bolt.Mel, our builder heroine, is surrounded by engaging characters as she becomes involved in shenanigans from the past who object, for enjoyable reasons, to her coordinating the renovation of the houses they are trapped in.The interweaving of practical restoration with serious crimes, relationship pickles and conflicting friendships made, for me, an excellent read.

An excellent story it kept me riveted right to the very end the twists and turns leapt out of the page and kept right on going I couldn't put it down until I finished it.

It's a boring, silly story and I will not be reading anything else by this author. What a waste of money!

Enjoyable ghostly tale of Frisco