Hometown Halloween Homicide (A Hometown Mystery Book # 7) by Rosalie Spielman

From author Rosalie Spielman comes hilarious haunt in a heartwarming hometown...

It’s the spookiest time of year in New Oslo, Idaho, and retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Tessa Treslow is looking forward to spending time with her aunt and their friends as they give away candy at the New Oslo community Trunk-or-Treat event. But first she agrees to accompany local salon owner, Becky Baker, to a funeral home to style the hair of a recently deceased woman—where they are both in for a surprise! There’s a note addressed to Tessa in the decedent's bouffant do, asking Tessa to solve her murder. But was her death even a murder?

As odd as that is, things get weirder when the woman's body disappears...and then another body disappears from the funeral home as well! Where did they go? Who would take them? Tessa has barely has time to wonder before she and boyfriend, Nick, stumble upon yet another body—only this one is fresh, wearing a creepy clown mask, and has clearly been murdered. As Tessa realizes she knows the victim, she also realizes Becky's husband has a connection to all three of the recently deceased. Is it a coincidence or something more sinister? It's up to Tessa to find out before any more bodies pop up...or wander off.

Between a trio of “Grim Reapers” haunting the town, a glowing orb floating in the fields, a mysterious skeleton left on Tessa’s front porch, and a pup dressed like a hot dog, Tessa's hometown Halloween could not be wackier. Will Tessa and her friends find the murderer...before the killer makes clowns out of them all?


"Clever & Compelling Gem! An excellent read and high on my list for 2023 honors."
~Kings River Life Magazine

"You will also fall in love with New Oslo and its residents and businesses. You will want to pack a bag and jump in your car and head there as fast as you can!"
~ Cozy Mystery Book Reviews   (Summary via Goodreads)

It took me a while to collect myself after reading Homicide on the Range, the sixth book in the Hometown Mystery series by Rosalie Spielman.  So, it shouldn't have come as a shock when I started reading Hometown Halloween Homicide that things would have been any different.  Although with the storyline being centered around Halloween, I should have been prepared for the spooky aspects ...

In Hometown Halloween Homicide Tessa, Aunt Edna, Nick and the rest of the gang of New Oslo are gearing up for the Halloween activities.  Unfortunately, things get really spooky when Tessa is keeping her friend Becky company while she does hair and makeup for elderly Doris Gray who recently passed.  One of Becky's jobs is getting the deceased ready for their funerals.

While Becky is working on Doris' hair, she finds a note addressed to Tessa from Doris asking her to solve her murder.  But before they can do anything, Doris's body goes missing, ends up somewhere else in town and another body that was also at the funeral home ends up laying in the football field at the high school.

It doesn't take long to remember that Doris and the other deceased body, Pick, were high school sweethearts.  Questions arise whether it was murder or just a suicide pact.  But the fact that both bodies were originally at the funeral home but moved makes everyone uncomfortable.

Tessa and Aunt Edna begin to try to unravel things but it only gets spookier.  There are people dressed as the Grim Reaper showing up around town and the daughter of one of the "old coots' shows up in town right after it was said she would never set foot back in town.

I thoroughly enjoy this series, even with having to take a beat to recover from the story.  This is said in a very good way .... you want a story to affect you, that way you know it was a good book.  And with the books in this series, once you close the book for the last time, you will sit back, take a deep breath, and need a minute.  But don't worry, you'll carry on until the next book and get all the feelings again when you start it.