Ghost Notes by Doug Johnstone

 

Private investigators, the Skelfs, have their hands full trying to uncover a blackmailer, investigating a company using AI to support the grieving, and dealing with an unwelcome face from the past, all while trying to run their funeral business.

Ghost Notes by Doug Johnstone is book 7 in the Skelfs series. The series features a family of women who combine the running of their funeral home while also being private investigators. There's matriarch Dorothy, her daughter, Jenny, and her granddaughter, Hannah. The book works as a standalone novel, but, as with any great series, reading the previous books will give you greater insight into the characters.

Their role as private investigators is what drives the story. Sometimes, the investigation seeks out the women, other times it is triggered by something that happens in their daily lives. This time around it's a complete mixture of the two. Jenny is approached by a woman she went to school with who is now a successful businesswoman and is being blackmailed because she is having an affair. With Hannah, her wife's ex-husband resurfaces seeking help. The only problem is that she didn't know her wife had been married previously, and she now refuses to talk about it. Both women deal with a crisis of confidence, comparing themselves to others, and questioning their own value. It is unsettling to see two emotionally strong and highly intelligent women doubting themselves.

I felt Dorothy's story was the strongest, and really made me think about the way in which our society is heading. A company has used AI to produce a bot that allows people who are grieving to communicate with the person who has died. We are given a glimpse of how this unregulated industry can affect different people. We know that people deal with grief differently, and the same is shown in their interactions with the 'grief bots'. It was frightening to consider the extremes that could develop from these interactions.

Running alongside the investigations is the funeral business. I love the way that the novels inform us of the ways in which the business of death is constantly developing. Burial and cremation are no longer the only options, we are given a fascinating insight into modern methods. Throughout everything is a strong sense of community, of belonging, even if you die alone.

Author Details

Doug Johnstone is the author of Fourteen novels, includingThe Great Silence, the third in the Skelfs series, which has been optioned for  In 2021, The Big Chill, the second in the series, was longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. In 2020, A Dark Matter, the first in the series, was shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year and the Capital Crime Amazon Publishing Independent Voice Book of the Year award. Black Hearts (Book four), was published in 2022, with The Opposite of Lonely (book five) out in 2023. Several of his books have been bestsellers and award winners, and his first science fiction novel, The Space Between Us, was a BBC2 Between the Covers pick. He’s taught creative writing, been writer in residence at various institutions, and has been an arts journalist for twenty years. Doug is a songwriter and musician with five albums and three EPs released, and he plays drums for the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers. He lives in Edinburgh.