If Walls Could Talk (Haunted Home Renovation Mysteries)

This novel was pretty well-written, the characters are interesting. I think people who are familiar with the Bay Area will appreciate the novel and its settings. The pace slowed down a bit to overly discuss the home rennovations, but I enjoyed reading about it. It seemed very well-researched in that line of work. I wished there was a more supernatural element to it, but the mystery itself played out well. I'm not sure I followed the main character's line of thinking as far as the ghosts were concerned, and getting to the bottom. She seemed to be the type of person who would make more use of her unique situation, not to mention she would probably be a little more facinated than nonchallant. I think it went a little long on a tangent not relating to the mystery in a couple of areas where the main plot really needed to get down to business. I think the series will grow and be very enjoyable. I look forward to the next book.

The Rule of Three has hit Melanie Turner pretty hard in the last two years. First, there was her divorce after a 10-year rocky marriage. Then, her beloved mother died suddenly of heart failure. And thirdly, Melanie had to take over the reins of Turner Construction after her mother’s death devastated her father so deeply that he no longer wished to run his own company.

Fortunately, Mel grew up at her father’s side in the company and knows her way not only around tools but around the paperwork side as well. And since Turner Construction specializes in restoring historical properties, this fits in quite well with – and probably led to – Mel’s education and career as a cultural anthropologist.

Then a second Rule of Three manifests itself. And it doesn’t take two years this time; it only takes two days. On the first day, the death occurs. A friend of Mel’s has gone into the business of remodeling and flipping historical properties. His business partner has talked him into having a “demo party” like those shown on reality DIY programs. When Mel goes to check on Matt the next day, she finds evidence of a drunken bash scattered among the power tools and Matt nursing a nasty gash between his eyes. Realizing the error of his ways, he begs Mel to have her company do the remodel. Within minutes of agreeing to draw up a contract, Matt’s business partner stumbles into the room, having been repeatedly shot with a nail gun and his hand amputated by a saw. And neither Mel nor Matt has heard a thing.

The second event was finding out that “Turner Contracting” had already applied for and received a building permit for the remodel. Since Melanie IS Turner Contracting, she realizes someone has forged her signature somehow and well before the death.

And thirdly, Cal-OSHA has shown up at the site. Even though it was not her employee who died and the power tools involved did not belong to the company, that building permit is still in her name, forged or not. Even though Mel cannot, in any way, control what a homeowner is going to do with his own tools, OSHA can shut the job down, shut her company down and even take her contractor’s license.

And the OSHA agent in charge is none other than Graham Donovan. Mel had been in love – unrequited love – with Graham a decade ago when he worked for her father. By the time Graham told her that he was interested after all, Mel had moved on and was only a week from her wedding date. And now, the man she left behind holds the future of Turner Construction in his grip.

And this threesome of dire events doesn’t even include the ghost of Kenneth, the dead business partner, who starts showing up in Mel’s peripheral vision minutes after his death.

Having read Blackwell’s Lily Ivory/Witchcraft series, I was well prepared for her style of writing. While witches and wizards are a more appealing storyline to me than psychics and ghosts, I wanted to try the Haunted Home Renovation series once I learned that Blackwell had written a crossover novella involving Lily Ivory.

And I was not disappointed in her basic style. From the beginning, there was plenty of action and mystery, a plausible entry into the main character’s ability to see ghosts, and good editing. What did disappoint me was Blackwell’s artistic license, which brought into the storyline a series of flaws that, piece by piece, eroded the overall effect.

First, and early on in the story, Blackwell made sure that we knew Mel’s marriage had been a rocky one from the start and that her divorce 2 years prior had taken a real toll on her emotionally. Mel avoids dating and tells herself that she will not ever marry again. What Mel – and Blackwell – never tells us is why. Not once is any reason given for the divorce, although the aftereffects of it are repeatedly beat into us right to the end of the book.

Secondly, we are told early in the novel that a building permit and a construction lien have been issued for a property that Mel’s company is NOT yet contracted to work on. Forgery involving these types of documents is a serious offense and can cost a business its very existence. But Mel, who is experienced in running a construction business, does not have either her business manager or her lawyer investigate the allegations. Instead, Blackwell has Mel stumbling around, just wondering why, how and who could have done such a thing instead of actively pursuing who had deliberately sabotaged her business.

And in conjunction with this breach of business acumen, Blackwell makes continual reference to how Mel dresses on the job – dresses, skirts and steel-toed boots. These references are tied to Mel’s divorce, how she is rebelling against the conservative faculty-wife dress that she had been confined to during her marriage. While trying to emphasize Mel’s attempt at independence, this artistic device is actually just plain stupid.

Being intimately familiar with home construction, remodeling and flipping, I know for a fact that over 75% of construction activities involve climbing, bending over, kneeling and crawling. Not only would wearing a skirt during these activities cost a woman the respect of both her workers and her clients, it is a safety hazard. Safety glasses and steel-toed boots are only part of the work attire. Protecting certain body parts and lower body skin is the exact reason why virtually all construction workers wear denims or Carhartts, even in the heat.

If a subcontractor came to my site wearing a skirt, they would be dismissed immediately, just to protect my insurance premium, if for no other reason. And since Blackwell publically admits that she runs a remodeling business for a day job, this makes her artistic license here even more inappropriate.

Finally, at the end of the book, the storyline is incomplete. While Blackwell does not leave us with a cliffhanger – she just leaves us. Oh, we find out who the murderers are and they get arrested. And, as happens in most of these plotlines, the main ghost character gets satisfaction and goes into the light.

But there were more bad guys in the flipping scheme than just the murderers. We never find out whether the secondary, but important, character who assaulted, tied up and locked Mel in a warehouse was ever arrested or exactly what his part in the overall scam and murder was. We never find out who nearly killed Mel and Graham at the storage facility nor who mugged Nico and put him in the hospital for days. Sure, we can guess and we would probably be close, but that’s not the point. The point is that we are left, on the last page, with a feeling of incompleteness in the plot and the words “Huh? That’s it?” on our lips.

VERY WELL WRITTEN,LIKABLE CHARACTERS,AWESOME PLOT,MY ONLY PROBLEM WAS THE SWEARING OF PEOPLES GOD OVER AND OVER TO ILLUSTRATE A CRANKY OLD MAN IN A NURSING HOME ,JUST A LACK OF RESPECT TO READERS OF FAITH.

I read a lot of the rave reviews and I just have to say that while this was an entertaining read, it was not a great read. I love a book I can't put down, and this was very easy to put down. It was a light read, and as such, it rated a three. Maybe the rest of her series will be better.

Meet Mel, she's a contractor that builds up old houses, and makes them nice and new. It turns out that in the process of flipping a house, someone, Kenneth, was hurt, then he died of his injuries. The problem is that Mel now sees Kenneth's ghost, and Kenneth want Mel to help him find out who killed him and why. Mel has to be careful, because a killer is on the lose, and now they have Mel in their sights.

As I said, this is a nice start to a promising series. The series does deal with the paranormal, and Juliet Blackwell has done her homework on the paranormal. For me, this is a strong point with the book. Some authors phone in the parts that deal with the paranormal, but Blackwell isn't one of those authors.

The writing style is a pleasant one to read. There isn't any real plot twists, but this is an interesting read.

If you start this, I don't think you'll be sorry.

Wow - what a great story teller Juliet Blackwell is. I loved her other series (the witch craft mysteries) have them all, and now I am HOOKED on the Renovation heroine. Such a weaving of details, settings, characters ... and Dog .. . her hero!! I have such a high stress job, I read for pleasure and it is INDEED a pleasure to read her work.

I can't wait until December when the next story comes out.

I really enjoyed this book! As the first book in a new series, we become acquainted with Mel, a woman with an interesting wardrobe and an equally interesting job - home renovation.

This book was very entertaining, the plot line was enjoyable, Mel a delight. Add in ghosts and you have a winner. Should make for a new, fun series and I'm looking forward to reading each and every subsequent installment.

I LOVED THIS NEW SERIES. SHE ALSO HAS ANOTHER SERIES CALLED THE BEWITCHING SERIES AND I
LIKED THAT ONE TOO.

I am only halfway through this book and love it so far! the description shows she does so much research on each and every book. It puts you right in the story and when she descibes the homes, it almost puts you back in the time the homes were built. MUCH praise to this series and I can't wait for the next one to come out!!

These books didn't quite hold my interest all that well. They seemed to just drag on & on & wasn't much excitement in them.