I’ve finally read the third book in the Jackaby series! Thanks, Em, for always reminding me about this series and Wyrd & Wonder for giving me the final push to put it at the top of the TBR.

So if you’re unfamiliar with the Jackaby, it’s a humorous fantasy series centered around the eccentric detective R.F. Jackaby and his new assistant, Abigail Rook (I read and really enjoyed book one and book two – links to review). Honestly, I was very excited for this one and expected another fun, light-hearted mystery with a lot of magic.

In Ghostly Echoes, Abigail and Jackaby are investigating the murder of Jenny, the ghost whose house they live in. It’s been about ten years since she was murdered, but when a similar murder and disappearance happens, Jackaby’s is forced to actively look into Jenny’s past, reluctant as he may be.

Sadly, the book and I got off to a bit of a rough start. I think it’s because the series is taking a slightly more serious turn, but the first third of the book felt like it was trying to be funny, but wasn’t. I probably chuckled only once and I remember being a lot more amused in the first two books. I wasn’t actually hooked by the book until I forced myself to sit down and read for an hour or so, and by the time the second third was done and we were in the underworld, I found that I was enjoying myself again. It helped that Jackaby started to show more emotional vulnerability, and it was made clear that the stakes here were much more personal and higher than the previous two cases, which made the more serious tone make a bit more sense to me.

By the way, I was looking forward to seeing more Charlie in this book and I’m glad he appeared! We even got to see a character from book two that I never thought we would be able to see again (then again, we’re in a world with ghosts so why did I think this way?). It was nice to have this continuity because I would love for Charlie to be in the core group with Abigail, Jackaby, and Jenny as they start facing bigger and bigger challenges.

Overall, I enjoyed this and kudos to the Ritter for making such an obvious cliffhanger/tie to the next book that I feel like reading book four ASAP to find out what happens next!