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Ophelia Wylde Paranormal Mystery #2
The Spirit is Willing
"McCoy has a gift for capturing the Old West in all its colorful and outrageous glory." --Margaret Coel
In the Old West, murder is a way of life. But psychic detective Ophelia Wylde is dealing out her own brand of justice by talking to the victims. . .after they're dead.
Ghost In The Machine
It's one of the strangest trials in Colorado history. A "spirit photographer" is accused of fraud, and Ophelia Wylde agrees to examine the man's ghostly portraits and testify in court. In a sealed room, she is presented with five photographs. Four are obvious fakes. But one photo--featuring a powerful politician, Jackson Miles, with a sorrowful ghost in chains behind his shoulder--is the real McCoy. When Ophelia makes contact, the spirit is in such agony that she's unable to learn anything but his Angus Wright. Intrigued, Ophelia sets out to learn more about the wronged Mr. Wright and discovers he was murdered nearly twenty years ago during the Gold Rush. The politician is somehow involved, and Ophelia has to watch her step. Because the living are much more dangerous than the dead. . .
"Another masterful tale by Max McCoy. . .gripping. . .can't wait to read the entire series!" -- True West on Of Grave Concern
In the Old West, murder is a way of life. But psychic detective Ophelia Wylde is dealing out her own brand of justice by talking to the victims. . .after they're dead.
Ghost In The Machine
It's one of the strangest trials in Colorado history. A "spirit photographer" is accused of fraud, and Ophelia Wylde agrees to examine the man's ghostly portraits and testify in court. In a sealed room, she is presented with five photographs. Four are obvious fakes. But one photo--featuring a powerful politician, Jackson Miles, with a sorrowful ghost in chains behind his shoulder--is the real McCoy. When Ophelia makes contact, the spirit is in such agony that she's unable to learn anything but his Angus Wright. Intrigued, Ophelia sets out to learn more about the wronged Mr. Wright and discovers he was murdered nearly twenty years ago during the Gold Rush. The politician is somehow involved, and Ophelia has to watch her step. Because the living are much more dangerous than the dead. . .
"Another masterful tale by Max McCoy. . .gripping. . .can't wait to read the entire series!" -- True West on Of Grave Concern
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
About the author
Max McCoy
45 books61 followersMax McCoy is an award-winning journalist and author. He’s won awards for his reporting on unsolved murders, serial killers, and hate groups. In addition to his daily newspaper work, Max has written for publications as diverse as American Photographer, True West, and The New Territory. He’s the author of four original Indiana Jones adventures for Lucasfilm/Bantam and the novelization of the epic TNT miniseries, Into the West. His novels, including Damnation Road, have won three Spur awards from the Western Writers of America. His novels, Hellfire Canyon and Of Grave Concern, have also been named Kansas Notable Books by the state library. He's a tenured professor of journalism at Emporia State University, in east central Kansas, where he specializes in investigative reporting and nonfiction narrative. He's also director of the university’s Center for Great Plains Studies. His most recent book is Elevations: A Personal Exploration of the Arkansas River, from the University Press of Kansas.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
May 24, 2018
One heck of a unique series. A western cozy! Ive loved both books so far and I look forward to the next. Strong main character, supernatural twists, western hooligans and mysteries to solve. What more could you want?
May 19, 2015
Much better than the first book in the series. The tone of the two books is so different that I feel like people with an interest should just start with book 2.
September 28, 2017
Max McCoy has a wonderful writing style. The characters are inventive and interesting in the whole Ophelia Wylde series, so I've enjoyed every one of them. They are sprinkled with some wonderful historical facts about the gold rush area and Western United States expansion. Not as well-plotted as the first in the series but all in all a wonderful romp.
August 9, 2021
I generally am not drawn to Westerns, but this was different. Our girl is not young, not old, but still strong minded and quick witted. And she has relationship issues. Ophelia was widowed in the American civil war and has been on her own since then, currently a talented investigator in Kansas. She can also see and hear ghosts.
Wyatt Earp makes an appearance!
Wyatt Earp makes an appearance!
September 26, 2018
Even more fun than the first one! I enjoyed the history of Colorado in the book, as well.
October 3, 2020
A much smoother blend of genres than the first in the series. It still leans a little too much towards "western" rather than "mystery" for my tastes, but I did enjoy it.
January 17, 2016
This review was originally posted on Backchatting Books
When Ophelia is hired by a woman to discover why the ghost of a hanged man manifests in her house with a strange book at his feet, she has no idea just how dangerous the case will be. The body count quickly rises as Ophelia tries to uncover the truth. She is dragged into a court case where a man is accused of faking spirit photographs and discovers that one of the photos is actually real. It takes her but a moment to realise that her case and the ghost in the photo are connected but she needs to know who was responsible and why if she is to give the ghost some peace.
The good bits
Ophelia is at her best when she is challenged (usually by men) and comes up with quite tart responses. I much preferred her in this mode rather than her frequent moments of self doubt which dragged. For someone who used to make her living scamming gullible people, I didn't quite buy her reticence in charging clients for her services and then fretting over the lack of money. Ophelia has proven that she is resourceful and will do whatever is necessary to survive so I expected her to come up with some way of making her new career pay or at least drink some cement and harden up.
The not so good bits
I got the sense that McCoy had done so much research to get the flavour of the era right that he was desperate to cram everything in. At time he goes overboard and the info dumping detracts from the overall effect. For example, Ophelia meets so many different people that for some reason are eager to share their back story within seconds of meeting her. We don't get to know them in any great depth beyond this which is a shame because several of them were interesting. The same applies to the numerous locations as Ophelia bounces around from place to place. Less really is more at times when it comes to characters and setting.
I would have enjoyed this book more if McCoy had stuck with Ophelia solving the mystery of the ghost in the photograph. The disparate threads take so long to be woven together that things are often quite confusing, especially as Ophelia doesn't even get to look at the photos and see the ghost until half way through the book. The dream sequences in particular sit alone and don't really help Ophelia with this case or indeed in surviving this novel. I can understand why McCoy wanted them as they do hint at a bigger story arc but I wish they had been integrated more effectively as they slowed the pace down substantially.
I missed Ophelia's interactions with Jack. I had hoped that the partnership forged in the first book would continue to develop as they made a good team but he barely appears.
Verdict
An interesting premise that was unevenly executed. I preferred the first novel in the series which seemed more polished.
When Ophelia is hired by a woman to discover why the ghost of a hanged man manifests in her house with a strange book at his feet, she has no idea just how dangerous the case will be. The body count quickly rises as Ophelia tries to uncover the truth. She is dragged into a court case where a man is accused of faking spirit photographs and discovers that one of the photos is actually real. It takes her but a moment to realise that her case and the ghost in the photo are connected but she needs to know who was responsible and why if she is to give the ghost some peace.
The good bits
Ophelia is at her best when she is challenged (usually by men) and comes up with quite tart responses. I much preferred her in this mode rather than her frequent moments of self doubt which dragged. For someone who used to make her living scamming gullible people, I didn't quite buy her reticence in charging clients for her services and then fretting over the lack of money. Ophelia has proven that she is resourceful and will do whatever is necessary to survive so I expected her to come up with some way of making her new career pay or at least drink some cement and harden up.
The not so good bits
I got the sense that McCoy had done so much research to get the flavour of the era right that he was desperate to cram everything in. At time he goes overboard and the info dumping detracts from the overall effect. For example, Ophelia meets so many different people that for some reason are eager to share their back story within seconds of meeting her. We don't get to know them in any great depth beyond this which is a shame because several of them were interesting. The same applies to the numerous locations as Ophelia bounces around from place to place. Less really is more at times when it comes to characters and setting.
I would have enjoyed this book more if McCoy had stuck with Ophelia solving the mystery of the ghost in the photograph. The disparate threads take so long to be woven together that things are often quite confusing, especially as Ophelia doesn't even get to look at the photos and see the ghost until half way through the book. The dream sequences in particular sit alone and don't really help Ophelia with this case or indeed in surviving this novel. I can understand why McCoy wanted them as they do hint at a bigger story arc but I wish they had been integrated more effectively as they slowed the pace down substantially.
I missed Ophelia's interactions with Jack. I had hoped that the partnership forged in the first book would continue to develop as they made a good team but he barely appears.
Verdict
An interesting premise that was unevenly executed. I preferred the first novel in the series which seemed more polished.
January 21, 2015
I didn't technically "abandon" this book but I had checked it out from the library as an e-book and when it expired before I finished I really didn't care. It's a western-paranormal-mystery and while I have nothing against genre-bending, this book didn't impress me.
The premise -- this book is the second in a series -- is that a woman has set up shop as consulting detective in 1870s Dodge City and helps people with supernatural problems. OK, I'll suspend my disbelief in ghosts. But the main character, Ophelia Wylde, is flat and simplistic. Of course she's plucky and sassy and dresses like a man (because what youngish widow in the 1870s wouldn't be?), of course she has a distant, noncommittal man in her life, and of course she feels guilty about being a fraud medium before she took up this "legitimate" line of work. None of the other characters are very well developed, either, which is probably why I didn't care about what happened to them.
For a murder mystery, it takes quite a while before we get a body, but then the pace picks up. The writing is pretty straightforward with occasional sparkles (and occasional thuds), but could have used a thorough copy edit. The period details seem well-researched in general but there were a few linguistic anachronisms.
If you run through mysteries like Kleenex and are looking for something light and a little different, you'll probably be OK with this one. But if you want a more complex, substantial mystery, move along, pardner.
The premise -- this book is the second in a series -- is that a woman has set up shop as consulting detective in 1870s Dodge City and helps people with supernatural problems. OK, I'll suspend my disbelief in ghosts. But the main character, Ophelia Wylde, is flat and simplistic. Of course she's plucky and sassy and dresses like a man (because what youngish widow in the 1870s wouldn't be?), of course she has a distant, noncommittal man in her life, and of course she feels guilty about being a fraud medium before she took up this "legitimate" line of work. None of the other characters are very well developed, either, which is probably why I didn't care about what happened to them.
For a murder mystery, it takes quite a while before we get a body, but then the pace picks up. The writing is pretty straightforward with occasional sparkles (and occasional thuds), but could have used a thorough copy edit. The period details seem well-researched in general but there were a few linguistic anachronisms.
If you run through mysteries like Kleenex and are looking for something light and a little different, you'll probably be OK with this one. But if you want a more complex, substantial mystery, move along, pardner.
August 2, 2014
Great story. This is the second mystery I've read about Ophelia Wilde, a the con woman, turned detective, who uses her connections with the spirit realm to solve the murder of a local man in 1870's Dodge City. A strange spirit is haunting a Dodge City resident and his wife. At exactly 11:00 PM for two weeks, strange noises emanate from the couple's parlor. When they investigate, an image of a hanged man appears in the center of the parlor, at his feet is a mysterious book, bound in red leather and lying open on the floor. The specter vanishes but the book remains. The husband grabs the book, refusing to let his wife see it and hides it away. No matter where it is secreted, the next night the hanged man appears in the parlor with the book opened at his feet. When the husband is found hanged in his parlor from what appears to be a suicide, it's up to Ophelia to find the haunted book and unravel it's mysterious connections to an old murder and prove that the widow's husband has been murdered. Loved the premise of the story and the characters that are so carefully created by the author, Max McCoy. I look forward to reading the next installment of the cases taken up by Ophelia Wilde, spirit detective. A thoroughly enjoyable read.
September 30, 2014
This is the second of the Ophelia Wylde paranormal mysteries. The books are set in Dodge City in the 1870s. Ophelia is a con woman turned medium who is partnering with a bounty hunter, Jack to solve cases. A woman comes into the office with an intriguing case. She and her husband are being haunted by a hanged man every Monday night at 11pm. When the spirit vanishes a mysterious book sits at his feet. Despite the couple hiding the book, it re-appears under the spirits feet. Ophelia takes the case and finds herself hunting clues in old mining towns in Colorado. These books just keep getting better and I look forward to the third.
July 14, 2014
Max McCoy takes great care in his research of an era. He plucks real historical figures from the Wild West (Wyatt Earp, anyone?) and inserts them expertly in his fiction. In his protagonist Ophelia Wylde he captures the independent spirit of a strong woman and doesn't worry with all the romance. Ophelia is witty, clever, and well read, something I suspect was a rarity among the general populace in the 1870's. I enjoyed this book and look forward to the next.
November 25, 2015
Mr.Mccoy's western mystery is chock full of history. This one is set in Dodge City, Denver and Leadville. The mystery centers around a series of murders stemming from the 1858 Colorado gold rush. The twist in these stories is that the detective speaks to the dead which is pretty irrelevant to the actual story. However it was well written, well researched and a good read.
August 15, 2014
This series just keeps getting better. I love the free thinking a strong willed character of Ophelia. It is always refreshing to read about women who forge their own path. Did wish there was more of the banter between Ophelia and Jack.
September 15, 2014
#2 in this series is less spooky doings although we do have a mystery train that collects the dead and for the most part processes them to hades as the devil is one of the conductors. The main story is a true mystery of who killed someone and why. Looking forward for number 3.
January 12, 2015
I think I liked this one even better than the first. Ophelia is a spunky fun detective. She is different. Horrible Hank cracks me up. The story was fun and filled with twists I didn't see coming. I loved the ghost train. I'm ready for more!
March 31, 2016
This book did not disappoint me. Once I began reading, I did not want to put it down. I wanted to find out what happened. Ophelia has a new case that begins in Dodge City with the death of a local man and ends in Colorado.
July 14, 2014
I enjoyed this second novel very much. Orphelia is a fun character and I am always wondering what she is going to do next.
November 28, 2014
unreadable
December 20, 2016
I am enjoying this series and sad to see there appears to be only one left. Hopefully the author will spin another tale of Ophelia Wylde.
January 17, 2017
I loved all three books hoping author continues series
April 7, 2017
This was a fun mystery read. I love Westerns generally, and this had plenty of the Western window dressing that made the usual mystery elements fresh. I like Ophie a lot, and I look forward to reading more of these novels.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews