Olga Godim

Did you know there are a Department of Good Intentions and a Rescue Express in Heaven? According to Ms. Hart, the author of this novel, both serve the same purpose: to facilitate dispatching of friendly ghosts to earth on temporarily assignments to right some wrongs.

Bailey Ruth works for the department, although she is not a model seraphic employee. She is too prone to beaching the heavenly rules. She repeatedly becomes visible to mortals (a decidedly 'no-no'), meddles with a police investigation, breaks the speed limit while driving a purloined car, and plays pranks on unsuspecting bureaucrats. On the other hand, she gets things done, murderers exposed, and orphans protected, so the department head Wiggins might just overlook her infractions. She hopes.  

Her current job is to watch over a four-year-old boy Keith and his grandmother, a super rich but very sick woman Susan. There is Susan’s will involved, a car chase (or two), a couple murders, and a bunch of Susan’s greedy relatives, but with Bailey Ruth on the case, justice will prevail.

Despite the heroine’s wit and common sense and her assorted otherworldly abilities – she can materialize at will or whiz through walls – the writer also makes her believable and vulnerable. Ghost on no ghost, while on earth, Bailey Ruth needs food, sleep, and warm clothing. She misses her children. She can be hungry, thirsty, upset. She doesn’t know what anyone is thinking; their minds are close to her. To investigate a murder, she has no other recourse but intense eavesdropping and lots of legwork, just like a living PI. Well, fly-work in her case – she doesn’t need to walk – but it comes to the same thing for a ghost. She wouldn’t give up until the murderer is caught and the innocents’ safety assured. She is a real guardian angel…with a sharp tongue and a wicked sense of the ridiculous.  

Of course, the story of this ghostly PI was spiced with a healthy dose of humor. Some scenes are hysterical, for example, the episode of Bailey Ruth’s ghost vying for a phone directory with a cat and a cook.

The plot is well constructed, the writing clean and pithy, and the tension rises steadily. Overall, an enjoyable read. The only problem I had with this book concerned clothing. The author describes everything everyone is wearing in details and colors – in almost every scene. After a few scenes, it gets tedious and detracts from the quality of the novel.