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Pepper Martin, in her third adventure involving Garden View Cemetery in Ohio, has grown on me. In her first escapade, Pepper knocks her head on a tombstone and comes away from the incident with a Gift – she can see and speak with the dead. Being a cemetery tour guide makes it very difficult to avoid the ghosts, despite Pepper's vehement denial in accepting her ability. After helping solve two mysteries, she's beginning to feel like a professional private investigator for the dead – but when she sees hunky ghost Damon Curtis hanging around the Rock Hall of Fame she does everything she can to avoid him. Fate, however, takes a hand in Pepper's future, and she is coerced into helping Damon solve his problem of not being able to pass over – before he disappears for good into the ether!

Damon Curtis was a rock legend in the band Mind at Large – before Pepper was even born. He was found dead of an overdose in 1971, and he hasn't been able to move on since. Now he's tired of hanging around without anyone to talk to or interact with; until he meets Pepper. Now the one person who can help him move on is the one person he doesn't want to leave. But when a fellow band-mate of Damon's – the very one Pepper and Damon believe to be responsible for his continued presence – is killed and Damon's still hanging around, they both realize that there is a lot more to the mystery of Damon's past than either fathom. Pepper follows the clues to the history of the band and its hangers' on – from manager Gene Terry to Crazy Belinda, a fan who's never left Damon's side, er - graveside.

While investigating Pepper manages to interact with all the men in her life: Quinn, the local detective who seems to wind up with any case connected to Pepper but doesn't know about her special abilities; Joel, her former fiancé, and Dan the Brain Man. Dan was a doctor doing research – or so Pepper thought when she met him – but since then he's been elusive and mysterious, making subtle comments about the paranormal without giving Pepper any information as to who he really is. Joel steps back in to her life briefly – but enough to send her rocking back to the emotional upheaval of their breakup. Soon enough Damon is the only man – er – ghost she is willing to trust – just enough to let him go, but will she figure out how to before she ends up a ghost herself?

As I said – Pepper's grown on me since her first exploit with Gus the Mafia Guy in Don of the Dead. Her personality has developed as she has learned to get on with her life, and all it has given her. This is a great woo-woo – I would say it is still a cozy, despite all the dead people.