The Legend of Sleepy Harlow by Kylie Logan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
3 stars to Kylie Logan‘s The Legend of Sleepy Harlow, the third in the “League of Literary Ladies” series about a woman who moves to the midwest to open a B&B after some mysterious troubles in NYC. Since this is a good Halloween ghost story that ties together an incident from 300 years ago to the present on quiet South Bass Island on the Great Lakes, it’s worth a read, but I needed a little more complexity in the story to push it up to a 4.
Story
A supernatural ghost hunting group who call themselves EGG visits the B&B on Halloween to try and find the headless ghost, Sleepy Harlow, who was murdered by a rival bootlegger nearly 300 years ago. Unfortunately, when they visited South Bass Island the previous year, they tormented Bea’s friend Kate who was very angry with their return. When one of the group turns up dead, Sheriff Hank can only assume Kate is guilty, but he enlists Bea to help find more clues that can save Kate from going to prison. While searching around, as well as helping another friend write a biography on Sleepy Harlow, Bea finds unusual connections among the EGG team, realizes who murdered the EGG ghost hunter and determines which one her friends has deeper ties to Sleepy that she realized.
Strengths
Everyone loves a ghost story. And when it’s parallel to Washington Irving’s Sleepy Hollow, how can you resist? There’s romance, threats, murder, ghosts and intrigue in this story helping to cement South Bass Island in deep American history.
We get some much needed focus on the Bea and Levi romance dance. Whether you’re a fan or don’t want them together, at least we now understand what’s going on between them.
Weaknesses
There were not enough suspects in this one. EGG had very little ties to the inhabitants of South Bass Island which meant the murderer could really only come from their group. No other suspects were even considered besides Kate — and we knew she couldn’t have done it given she is one of the primary characters in this series.
The connection between Sleepy Hollow and one of the girls was a great nugget and surprise, but barely a page was devoted to it. It would have been even better if in the resolution, the character reflected on her newly found relation and change to her past history / family tree. What a miss!
Final Thoughts
Overall, it’s a good read. I feel like it could have been bound more tightly together given it’s a serial cozy mystery. The story was good, could have been better with more details and fell shy of getting a 4 from me. But I like the series, the author and the characters, so I’ll move on to Book 4.
Good review! I’ve read the first two in this series. 🙂