Karen White - The Guests on South Battery

With her extended maternity leave at its end, Melanie Trenholm is less than thrilled to leave her new husband and beautiful twins to return to work, especially when she's awakened by a phone call with no voice on the other end--and the uneasy feeling that the ghostly apparitions that have stayed silent for more than a year are about to invade her life once more. 

But her return to the realty office goes better than she could have hoped, with a new client eager to sell the home she recently inherited on South Battery. Most would treasure living in one of the grandest old homes in the famous historic district of Charleston, but Jayne Smith would rather sell it as soon as possible, guaranteeing Melanie a quick commission. 

Despite her stroke of luck, Melanie can't deny that spirits--both malevolent and benign--have started to appear to her again. One is shrouded from sight, appearing whenever Jayne is near. Another arrives when an old cistern is discovered in her backyard on Tradd Street. 

Melanie knows nothing good can come from unearthing the past. But some secrets refuse to stay buried...

Comment: This is the 5th installment in the Tradd Street series by Karen White, which I have been reading, and enjoying, lately. The previous book seemed to be a perfect end for the main story line but I'm glad the author added a few more books!

In this book Melanie and Jack are getting better organizing their lives now they are parents of twins, a boy and a girl. Along with Nola, the dog and two of his puppies and a busy life, everything seems to go according to plan at the Tradd street house. However, suddenly Jayne Smith appears at Mellie's office because she wants to sell a house and she is weirdly familiar, but no one who meets her seems to be able to make the right connection. Jayne is the perfect candidate to be the nanny of Mellie's twins and she also is a likable person as well. She wants to want to sell an old house, which she got in an inheritance but she is confused because she used to be in foster care and never knew her biological family nor does she have any connection to the old lady who left her the South Battery house. But she does act oddly when visiting the house, pretty much as oddly as Mellie... could it be Jayne also sees ghosts?

Again, I was immersed and captivated by this story and it was such a pleasure to spend time with familiar characters and nod my head at their antics or their peculiarities. I can see the book (all of them, kind of) might be so much better if certain things were different but I usually have such a good time reading, that I overlook those details and simply focus on what I love the most in the books.

I've felt the author probably organized or planned things for four books. The end of the previous books seemed to be so.... well done in terms of closure and of how all the main elements were solved, if the story truly had ended there, I would not feel anything key would be missing. Thankfully, the author has a lot of imagination and in comes this new character, very similar to Mellie but I was curious to see where things would go. I think the path chose was a little too convenient and predictable but to me, the book is worth for its whole, even if some separate elements aren't as great, everything still ended in a good place to me.

This time the big mystery is about what happened at the South Battery house. As seen in the other books, something sinister happened in the house in the past and now a ghost (or more than one) is active and causing mischief. Jayne, the new owner, is as wary of old houses as Mellie used to be (and the way the author wrote about their personalities was a bit too obvious), but still went in to see what she wanted for her idea was to sell. I was quite interested in the story of the ghosts, a little girl died there, as did her mother, but in many different ways. I was even more curious on how this might be connected to Jayne inheriting the house.

The ghosts and their stories are obviously slowly developed and while some details start to lead to a certain scenario, it was still quite surprising how the little things connect. I mean, considering who investigates isn't a professional and some clues come from ghosts activity... but it is still so interesting to read the process and at the same time we can follow what happens in the lives of the main characters, I do like the vibe and tone of the book.

I like Mellie as a character but she can be a bit too OCD at times and now this idea of the twins' schedule... on one hand, I like she doesn't change radically, on the other I do wish she could appreciate the little things in a more obvious way now she is married and living with the person she loves and who loves her back. Their marriage isn't always easy but I liked how they face natural issues and many situations people in real life certainly do as well. It's true things aren't all fairy tale like but I still liked reading about them and their lives.

If there is one element I was a bit on the fence about is how Jayne ends up being connected to everyone and how quickly things seem to be at the end, when everything is explained. It's not that I want more drama, but perhaps more thought into how the events should have taken longer to happen would have been better, would make it look less "inevitable". Besides, the situation which led to things be this way, while not impossible, still felt too out there. I also didn't like it how sudden it seems! That is why I think this had never been planned and the author just invented this after the other books had been done.

Despite this, I will definitely read the last two books and if nothing major negative happens, I'll certainly consider this to be a great series overall.

Grade: 8/10