This book positively lit up my weekends with its cosy, affectionate, funny, awkward brand of ghostly crime-solving. Perfect for fans of BBC's Ghosts, Alice Bell has a keen eye for characterisation and the ridiculous, creating a story that will both send chills down your spine and wrap you up in a hug. -- Ally WIlkes, author of All the White Spaces

Funny, fast, sharp, original, and addictive ... a unique breath of fresh air. Brilliant! -- Andrea Mara Despite this traumatic past, Claire and Sophie are still unprepared for what they encounter when they arrive at the manor: a ghost, tragic and unrecognizable, and clearly the spirit of someone killed in a rage at the previous year’s party. Given her obsession with crime shows—not to mentionSophie’s ability to walk through walls—Claire decides they’re the best people to solve the case. And with the help of the only obviously not-guilty members of their host family—sexy ex-policeman Sebastian and far-too-cool non-binary teen Alex—they launch an investigation into which of last year’s guests never escaped the manor’s grounds.

Selection panel review

The idea and the first few chapters were appealing to me. Yet it seems that the mystery is put on hold whenever the manhunt for the culprit gets serious. This book was a true gem, witty and amusing with likable characters. I adored Claire, a millennial, and Sophie, an everlasting teen. Bash grudgingly follows along with Alex’s cool, collected approach to everything as their passion for the inquiry spreads. I enjoyed all the characters, and it was entertaining and kept me on my toes. This could be just up your alley if you enjoy the idea of a contemporary take on the country home murder. A very funny, entertaining, twisted take on the country house murder mystery. Wonderful.' -- S J Bennett

I'm not much of a murder mystery reader, but this is in some ways not much of a murder mystery. I don't mean that as a diminutive or a criticism, the 'he's not much of a player, is he?' that my dad would perhaps offhandedly say about whichever snooker person he wasn't keen on at the time, but in the sense that of the time I spent with Grave Expectations, relatively little of it was focused on the actual murder mystery. That's there, and it's competently done (as far as I can tell, having little to compare it to), but straight-up character work is what occupies most of the book. Well, that and what I suspect is a very specific type of humour particular to British people between the ages of, say, twenty-five and thirty-seven, but since I fall neatly into that band all I can really say about that is that it works for me. I’m so looking forward to waking the dead with Corvus and PRH in 2023 and beyond. To see Grave Expectations published at all is almost unbelievable, let alone getting to work with editors as smart and passionate as Sarah and Anna, who have helped bring Claire and Sophie to life (and un-life) in ways I never expected. It’s very invigorating to be so supported in my efforts to put more swearing, crying, and falling over into cosy crime.”The way that the ending is written, and judging that the next part of the story is a novella and NOT a full length novel of only Lincoln's point of view, leads me to believe that a true happy ending for Charlie (Charlotte) and Lincoln is impossible. The actual crime itself is more of a cipher to investigate the family at the centre of it all, which is both a shame and a blessing, depending on how much you value character exploration over a juicy whodunnit mystery. Fortunately there’s enough light and shade scattered throughout to keep the reader entertained, the light being the moments of bonding amongst our quartet of detectives, and the dark being a moment of revelation about Claire’s past that could strike as too bleak for some readers in what is otherwise a tonally cohesive work. In hindsight, I don't know why I requested this one from NetGalley - the fun title and cover, I suspect. But it's really not my thing and it's not aimed at me. It's clearly aimed at people young enough to find constant swearing highly entertaining (rather than deadly boring), who feel that all the cool people take drugs (rather than it being for losers) and who think that they/them should be taken seriously as pronouns for a single person (rather than realising the grammatical absurdity of it). On the other hand I can see that it is quite fun and quite well written - the basic premise of a woman who has been able to see ghosts since her murdered best friend turned up posthumously has a lot of potential, as does the idea that they (that's they in its correct sense, meaning more than one person) intend to solve a murder of a ghost haunting the house they're visiting. Speaking of inconsistencies, let’s talk about Mrs. Webb for a moment. Are you honestly going to try to convince me that an insignificantly average woman ON HER OWN could lift not only Charlie by herself but Gus as well?? You’re kidding, right? I’ve personally tried to lift someone who was a complete dead-weight (and probably weighed 90 pounds soaking wet) with the help of another woman and it was ridiculously hard (and PS, I’m not a weak person). So yeah, no. I don’t think I can believe that. Clever,unpredictableand agenuinely humorousmodern day country house murder mystery which left me guessing.”

Claire and Sophie team up with self-assured teenager Alex and sceptical ex-police officer Bash to try and work out who has died and who killed them. This really reminded me of the Glass Onion series of films, which I watched recently and loved. A central character, Claire, full of fun and wit, embroiled in a classic ‘whodunnit’ with a small mix of suspects tied together by familial bonds and secrecy. The premise of Claire being a medium and talking to ghosts sounds completely ridiculous, but turned out to be really fun. The ghosts she communicates with are sassy, sarcastic and funny, with their own quirky personalities and behaviours. Particularly the ghost of 17-year-old Sophie, Claire’s childhood friend, who follows Claire around like a shadow providing witty commentary as she goes. It was very enjoyable.” About the authorAlice Bell grew up in South West England, in the sort of middle-of-nowhere where teenagers spend their weekends drinking Smirnoff Ice in a field that also has at least one horse in it. Witty, addictive, andbreathes some much needed (undead) life into the cosy crimemurder mystery genre.” A fast-paced and hilarious debut crime novel, in which a burnt-out Millennial medium must utilize her ability to see ghosts and team-up with a band of oddball investigators to figure out which member(s) of a posh English family are guilty of murder.