Louie the Mustache Matos's Reviews > The Haunting of Daisy Dawkins: Coyote Mansion / Winchester Mansions

The Haunting of Daisy Dawkins is a double novel, anthology collecting two of Alexandria Clarke's books, and selling them at a markedly low price. (They sometimes can be found for free or 99 cents.) Who doesn't love a great deal? Especially so, when stories are both strong and linked thematically by a ghost / haunted home trope where the inhabitant becomes aware of the spiritual presence of a previous tenant.

One novel takes place on Coyote Island, where a publishing house holds writer's retreats where they assist writers to find literary agents to help sell their work. There is a murder mystery that threatens to shorten the retreat, but there are always intrepid souls that are willing to risk harm for the sake of fame, or a few weeks of focused solitude. Too bad that there's a specter causing trouble or rescuing from trouble. Who knows?

The second novel is a lot more involved with subplots, intrigue, and insidious villainy. Bodhi and Bailey are a husband-and-wife team of house flippers with a blog. They lost their daughter early in their marriage and have channeled their restlessness into a mostly successful partnership that has become more perfunctory and less a marriage.

Their work on the Winchester House has underscored a marked imperative to determine the viability of a continued partnership or the dissolution of such. The house is a keeper of secrets, and there were questions about possible murder that have remained subverted in its detritus. Do Bodhi and Bailey have enough love left to not only investigate the house but reconstruct their marriage.

I enjoyed both novels very much. The characters were not always likeable, but they kept my attention. I felt various emotions. The plots reached me. There's a lot to like here.