Displeasure Island

It didn’t surprise me at all that Displeasure Island, the second book in the series, was such a wonderful read. I fell in love with it just as hard as I did with Grave Expectations. Alice Bell clearly knows exactly what she’s doing with this world and these delightful characters! Reading this book genuinely felt like a Mystery Inc. adventure….if Mystery Inc. dealt with real ghosts and everyone was British. The island setting, with the characters completely cut off from the rest of the world, was peak cozy crime and gave me strong Agatha Christie vibes. I found myself giggling and laughing out loud throughout the story more times than I can count. What really made this book shine, though, was the mystery itself. Beyond being funny and cozy, it genuinely kept me guessing. Safe to say, I will be getting my hands on the third book, The Grapples of Wrath, immediately. Cozy, funny, spooky (not a lot but still a bit) and genuinely clever. P.S. Honestly, one of the selling points to me? Pirate ghosts. Actual pirate ghosts, represented in every way I could have hoped for.