Review - The Mystery of the Spirits by C.S. Poe

Sebastian Snow has been very good about minding his own antiques business and staying out of his husband Calvin Winter's police business. That is, until Calvin's boss comes to him with a rare object from the 1850s that was found at the scene of a murder. So, once again, Sebastian is drawn into a series of bizarre crimes. Will he solve them before he becomes a victim himself? And will his marriage survive another foray into the dangers of crime?

This somewhat unexpected fifth mystery in the Snow and Winter series is a rather sweet if gruesome homage to the rest of the books. It takes place a year or two after most of the other books, and you'll want to have read at least a few of the previous stories in the series to know who all the bit players are. The couple are now in a stable relationship, so while this new case raises old issues, there isn't much to question about where the relationship is heading.

The mystery this time out is another puzzler typical of the series. There are lots of red herrings to distract you. This is the type of detective story that you can't possibly solve based on the clues provided, until it becomes clear to Sebastian, once again almost too late to keep him out of danger.

While this really may be the last book of the series, I can easily see it going on, with our two heroes finding themselves involved in another case. The challenge would be coming up with more weird crimes involving antiques. Researching these stores must be, um, murder.

“The Mystery of the Spirits” is available from Smashwords or Amazon (commissionable link).