Coached to Death: 10/07/21

Coached to Death by Victoria Laurie and Rachel Dulude (Narrator) is the start of the Life Coach mystery series. It's also a spin off from the Ghost Hunter mystery series. So while demons and ghosts aren't part of this mystery, and I suppose not part of the series, the series exists in the same universe and shares some of the same characters.

Catherine "Cat" Cooper has settled in the Hamptons to start a new career as a life coach. She has a beautiful new home with an ocean view, a smart guess house, and a house guest — Gilley. The set up reminds me of the Merry Muffin series by Victoria Hamilton, if Merry Wynter were financially set to run the castle from the very first book.

Cat's new life gets complicated when her next door neighbor is poisoned after a luncheon. Cat had been asked to bring punch as part of an elaborate hazing routine. Her neighbor is later found poisoned with the punch in her stomach.

Although she's pretty quickly ruled out as the suspect her arrest forces her involvement in solving the case. Her investigation, though, also coincides with a number of other deaths. In this regard, I'm reminded of a newer mystery I just read, A Deadly Deletion by Lorna Barrett (2021).

Overall, I enjoyed Coached to Death. Victoria Laurie has matured as a writer which in turn has given Gilley a maturity he didn't have in the earliest books of the Ghost Hunter series. One other change is in how I'm reading this series — via audiobooks. Rachel Dulude narrates and she really captures everyone's personalities.

The second book is To Coach a Killer (2020).

Four stars

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