Dear book-lovers,

Welcome to the stop on blog tour for a middle-grade mystery – The Haunting of Elmwood Manor by Pamela McCord 🙂 You will find in this post details about the book and author, my review, a link for giveaway, and the tour schedule.

Book Details

Title: The Haunting of Elmwood Manor

Author: Pamela McCord

Series: a Pekin Dewlap Mystery #1

Release Date: March 1, 2019

Publisher:Acorn Publishing

Genres: Middle-Grade, Mystery

Synopsis:

Pekin Dewlap hasn’t seen a ghost since she was twelve. But she’d do anything to get them back. Starting a ghostbusting business with her two best friends, Amber and Scout, seems like the perfect way to accomplish her goal. Of course, playing with ghosts isn’t high on their wish list, so Pekin has to do some arm-twisting to get them on board.

Once committed, Pekin and her friends find themselves in deep, trying to solve the disappearance of fourteen-year-old Miranda Talbert. Miranda went missing in 1918, and her spirit has wandered the halls of Elmwood Manor for the last hundred years.

In the midst of finding Miranda, discovering her budding feelings for Scout, and consoling a terrified Amber, Pekin is met by an angry ghost set on thwarting her plans. Will the Ghosties be able to help Miranda, or will Pekin’s business die before she solves the mystery?

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Purchasing links: AMAZON / B&N / iBOOKS

About Author

Pam was born in Arkansas several decades ago. She’s not sure if that makes her a Southern Girl or if moving to Southern California when she was five revokes her Southern Girl card. She started writing later in life when she was challenged by a friend to create a book out of his story idea. Reaching the first 5,000 words was a milestone, but with time and hard work she managed to finish an entire book, much to her surprise. Since then, she’s written several novels, in several genres. Romance, middle grade and paranormal comprise most of her work. Pam has spent over 40 years working as a legal secretary at a law firm in Orange County, California. Aside from writing, she follows the stock market, buying, selling and trading stocks and options. In contrast to that, she loves trips to Las Vegas where she can spend many happy hours at the Pai Gow tables. She shares a condo with her very own My Cat From Hell TV star, Allie, who manages to exude just enough affection to make her scary feral ways tolerable.

Author links: WEBSITE / FACEBOOK

Review

Title: The Haunting of Elmwood Manor
Author: Pamela McCord
Series: a Pekin Dewlap Mystery #1
Publication Year: 2019
Genres: Middle-Grade, Mystery
Source: eARC via Xpresso Book Tours
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Recommendation: Recommended for young mystery fans

My Thoughts

This was a cute, spooky and sweet middle-grade mystery about 15 year old Pekin and her two friends, Amber and Scout, starting kind of a ghost hunting business. So their first adventure with a hunted house begins with mystery solving of Elmwood Manor in hopes to help its ghost to move on. There were some things that didn’t make sence (I’m not talking about the paranormal stuff) but it was still fun to read.

“Do you guys know what this means?” Pekin asked, all but jumping up and down in her seat with excitement. “The house is actually haunted. We really have our work cut out for us.”

“Holy crap! What are you talking about? We’re done.” Scout started at her like she’d lost her mind.

“We are not doe. We have a job to do.”

“Aren’t you freaked out by that house?” Amber asked.

My main problem was with the adults of this book, they annoyed me, and didn’t feel real enough, some of their actions and behaviour were a bit unrealistic. I must admit that at times the protagonists felt a bit immature and younger than their age. Sometimes it also seemed like that this book wanted to be YA instead of middle-grade, hence, that made it feel a bit off.

“Aren’t you scared to go back there?”

“I’m a guy. I couldn’t admit it even if I was,” he said with a lopsided grin.

However, the hints of romance between Pekin and Scout were so cute together. Their interactions were entertaining with their misunderstandings and some sweet moments.

Scout dropped Amber at home, and then he and Pekin headed to Benny’s. Pekin glanced sideways at Scout as he drove. She felt her face flush. She was hanging out with Scout. Alone. On a Saturday night. It was almost like a date. Not quite, but she’d take it.

Overall I enjoyed this book with it’s mystery, spookiness, friendship, first crushes and innocence. It was an easy and fun read with middle-grade feel to it. So I can say that The Haunting of Elmwood Manor is perfect for middle graders.