Wight Mischief

Title: Wight Mischief
Author: JL Merrow
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (Second Edition)
Release Date: June 1, 2018
Genre(s): Mystery / Suspense
Page Count: 216
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

Read book blurb here

The Isle of Wight, an island of about 140,000 in the English Channel, is said to be the most haunted in the world, sometimes referred to as "Ghost Island" (thanks, Wikipedia!). Will and his best mate Baz are on a camping holiday on the Isle, where journalist Baz is doing research for his book about the hauntings.

But their first night out, Will wanders onto a beach where he encounters perhaps Wight's biggest mystery - reclusive novelist Marcus Devereux swimming in the moonlight. Marcus' alabaster skin (due to his albinism) makes Will wonder if he is seeing one of Wight's ghosts.


Will is a nice guy, with an amazing physique due to his job as a physical trainer, but perhaps not the best judge of character. His mate Baz comes off as a manipulative jerk and user, and I dearly wanted to knock some sense into Will, but on the other hand, Will's accepting and kind nature work their way into Marcus' lonely heart.

IMHO, Will and Marcus's relationship feels light on the romance without a lot of chemistry between the two. There is a murder mystery here, but the villain is so obvious and cartoonish and the mystery is not so much solved as shuffled aside after the reveal of the killer, with little explained about the nature of Marcus' emotional dependence.

 I finished this book being fascinated with the Isle of Wight and its rich history of ghosts and hauntings, but the murder/mystery was too one-dimensional and romantic elements felt undeveloped. 3 stars.