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Haunting Danielle #5

The Ghost of Halloween Past

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Spending Halloween in a haunted house is nothing out of the ordinary for Danielle and Lily. After all, Marlow House Bed & Breakfast has its own full-time ghost. But there is another haunted house in Frederickport, Oregon. Yet, its ghost only shows up on Halloween. Why just once a year? And how is this frightening spirit connected to all that’s happened to Danielle since she arrived in town?

As Danielle tries to sort through the Halloween haunting, Sadie the golden retriever has her own issues—a mysterious black cat who seems even more adept than Sadie at communicating with spirits.

545 pages, Unknown Binding

First published September 14, 2015

449 people are currently reading
725 people want to read

About the author

Bobbi Holmes

42 books729 followers

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5 stars
1,453 (39%)
4 stars
1,425 (38%)
3 stars
710 (19%)
2 stars
57 (1%)
1 star
15 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 185 reviews
Profile Image for Theresa .
1,848 reviews77 followers
May 19, 2019
4.5 Stars... I love how the author continually pulls past storylines into her current one; it allows her readers to have closure while still being intrigued as to how the past characters can catapult the current story's momentum forward... I really enjoyed this read with the mystery behind the character of Harvey and his ability to be both a victim of others' malice, but also a perpetrator of violence inflicted towards innocents... He was a cross between a mischievous teen and a malevolent ghost... The presence of Halloween always ramps up the scare factor as well creating an eerie setting for the storyline to unfold... This series is simply fun and entertaining, and one I know I will continue to enjoy.:)
Profile Image for Angel.
111 reviews
November 30, 2019
Love this series!!! So fun and a quick read!! I always love the characters in each book and of course Walt is my favorite!!!
Profile Image for Czarina at captainz.
220 reviews
June 10, 2022
I really love these cute books, but Joe Morelli is the most useless dude. I'm so scared the author wants him and Danielle to end up together, but she deserves better. He's awful at every turn. No matter what he does in a future book it won't make up for who he is. I'm happy Brian is better now. Really love Lilly.
Profile Image for Kyla Lewis.
31 reviews
March 10, 2024
I never thought I’d want a love story between a ghost and a woman so badly! 🥲 (p.s. the Fredrick port police suckkkkk)
Profile Image for Monica Lee.
10 reviews
July 11, 2020
Not as great

Not as great as the previous ones. A few fun twists but the writing was a bit confusing. Not bad though. Still love the series!
Profile Image for Ash Mustard.
889 reviews7 followers
December 24, 2020
I do love how each book is a different mystery and this one was a good one at first it was slow and didn’t know what was going on but it tied up nicely
1,418 reviews5 followers
June 19, 2022
Ok, I admit it. I am addicted to this series. Solid cozy mysteries and fun paranormal. :-)
Profile Image for Alyssa.
751 reviews10 followers
January 13, 2024
Max is the best.
That ending was the best.
I just want them to kiss. Hahahha
Profile Image for Mia Perero Boyer.
454 reviews7 followers
October 17, 2022
I picked this book for a prompt, and it turned out to be a decent book. I didn't realize it was part of a series until after I started reading it.

It's kind of cheesey, and not scary at all, even though it's about Ghosts. Its cute, too. I might read rhe rest in the series, but undecided as of now.
Profile Image for Emily Mason.
397 reviews1 follower
October 2, 2024
Love this one too, I'm really enjoying this series as a whole. The characters are so fun to follow and I love how everything always comes together by the end or when you start the next book. Can't wait to read the next one!
Profile Image for Chantelle Marshall.
555 reviews2 followers
June 11, 2024
3 stars (Audible). A few mistakes + I never thought I'd root for one character to jump off a cliff, but Sgt Morelli is a moron + adds nothing but frustration to these storylines.
Profile Image for Mia.
196 reviews2 followers
November 20, 2023
Back to hating Joe. I swear, everyone in this police department is just plain useless 😒. Well, of the main characters who work there. Danny isn't making great decisions but still loving the mystery and background stories. I love how this series has become an escape for me. Wonder if there is be romantic between Danny and Walt ❤️
Profile Image for Jodi.
424 reviews
August 22, 2019
4.5
Omg the Fredrickport police department is run by a bunch of morons! 🤦🏻‍♀️
Profile Image for Ilene.
75 reviews
October 7, 2018
What a wonderful Series!

I was hooked on this series the first moment I began reading it. Danielle, the main character, starts from humble beginning as a divorcee whose husband died in a car accident with his mistress. Devastated, she sells her otherwise lucrative business to then move to an inherited home, Marlowe House, to overhaul it and make it a bed and breakfast. She and Lily, her bff from childhood, come to the old Victorian structure to find it in desperate need of updating. The structure is very sound and it has been regularly cleaned and maintained by Joan, who has been an employee of Dani’s great aunt, the one who had passed away, leaving the home to Dani. Money quickly becomes tight as the repairs and updates begin, things get more bizarre. Dani is a sensitive who can see and converse with ghosts who remain on earth after their deaths seeking to resolve unfinished business. Walt, the resident spirit from Marlowe House, eventually becomes a friend and looks out for Dani and Lily whenever possible. The resulting shenanigans that Dani gets into as a result of her psychic gift are very funny and completely enthralling.

This particular book deals with the suspected haunting of Presley House, another old home in a dangerous state of disrepair. With the coming of Halloween, Harvey and Max appear on the scene searching for something, reappearing every Halloween season because what they are searching for has not been found since Harvey first began looking for it, 40 years ago. Dragged reluctantly by the police chief who is the only one in the local police to be aware of and believe in her psychic gift, to Presley house to find the suspected haunting spirit, Dani is thrust again in the middle of a tangled web of intrigue and lost lives. This particular novel goes to show Dani’s human vulnerability, despite her seemingly powerful gift and inherited wealth. Things are exasperated when the police chief goes on vacation to Hawaii and Dani is left to struggle through things, caught without sufficient police support and her own human frailty.

All in all, a great read! This author really delivers.
Profile Image for Claudia |✨Cushin Violeta's Bookish Realm✨.
1,615 reviews58 followers
July 14, 2025
🅼🆈 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂: 🄰🅄🄳🄸🄾🄱🄾🄾🄺

Oohh... This one is a perfect spooky season read. We continue the series with a new ghost in town.

Actually, this ghost only returns every Halloween in the Presley house and everyone thinks it's just the teenagers trying to play mischief and scare people.

Romy, our narrator - you are freaking perfect and the way you narrate and enact all the different povs.. Ahhh... Absolutely love it and your voice.

Danielle doesn't want to wait a year more lest this dangerous ghost might somehow come back to haunt her and she needs to solve this before Halloween day.

I loved the character of Max so much and in the beginning you are like what is going on because the author has written so brilliantly that it leaves you baffled as to what the heck is happening and who are these two characters, Max and Harvey and what is going on with them.

Max finds himself fascinated with Danielle and I was so nervous when that whole thing plays out... Until... OH my.. I didn't expect that twister and I was oh so delighted to find about it.

Danielle doesn't know what to think as a ghost from her past somehow comes in her path, and things are to be once again somehow related as to what is happening currently.

I loved my gang, of Lily, Walt, Ian was a little missing in this one but still great, Sadie our sweet dog and as always they have Danielle's back no matter what.

I also feel after we started liking Sergeant Joe Morelli again in the previous book, now Brian is somehow growing on me.
This time it seems he's looking at things differently and also is grateful that in spite of their differences, Danielle did help him out.
Our chief is great but his vacay sure make things interesting and complicated as his absence makes Danielle helpless to communicate.

Oohh... Yet another Unputdownable ride with all the suspense and mystery that keeps you guessing and turning the pages. In my case, listening to the chapters non-stop 😁

I'm absolutely loving this series oh so much. Diving straight into the next one. Loved this one. ♥️♥️♥️
Profile Image for Lynda Kelly.
2,206 reviews106 followers
November 21, 2021
Not one of the best in this series but still a good yarn. I do enjoy this set of stories though they don't often drop too much in price, so I am way behind. The characters are all still a delight, though I was a little miffed at Lily in this one. She seemed to have lost some of her gumption.....it was nice to meet Heather and I hope she'll be sticking around in the next instalment. The addition of Max into their fold I just loved, too.....he had BETTER be sticking around as well. The ending scene I thought was just lovely, too. During some of the dialogue I did make the note that the author does SO well keeping it straight in her head as to who can see and hear who....that has to be bloody difficult !!
I did find the beginning of the story very baffling in this one, however, I think she needed to make it a lot clearer who Max and Harvey were. It was beginning to irritate me.
There WERE quite a lot of errors letting it down, too. Missed-off speechmarks, wrote watch not watched, it's not its, then there was a whole passage we must've had rewritten 4 times.....I was getting VERY aggravated at that !! It was about the windows being covered in the Presley house so only slits of light could get in.....again and again we were told this and trust me, we'd taken it in the first time it was mentioned !! "It better be important" was written as Heather would've said it but looks horrible when written as such.
Once again I loved the cover art. I'm happy she keeps it featuring the house with little differences and story pointers as she does. They're always super. The dedication at the beginning to the "original Walt" was a splendid one. I had to google a Ford Flex and I really liked it. Turns out it was never sold over here.....no idea why but I think it looks a super car.
Looking forward to book 6 in the series, I really need to get caught up a bit faster !!
Profile Image for Kelly Knapp.
948 reviews20 followers
April 10, 2018
So far, every book has been better than the previous, which is unusual. Most of us look forward to a sequel, but don't expect it to be better than the first. This series seems to be the exception for me.

In the previous year, Danielle Boatman has lost her husband, but found he was cheating on her. The pain of this betrayal has her selling the company they started and looking for a new start. It doesn't help that she can see ghosts who haven't moved on. However, she finds her new start in an unexpected inheritance from a Great Aunt by marriage, The Marlowe House. But Marlowe house comes with secrets and the town, a wide variety of characters. The main character is Walt Marlow, a Ghost, excuse me, a spirit (Walt does not like the term ghost) who died in his own attic at the age of 25. He has decided he doesn't want to "move on" to the next part of his journey. There's a touch of romance in the air, but where can a Spirit and a live woman's relationship go?

Danielle has a new neighbor, Heather. There is a black cat hanging around. It is almost Halloween and the entire town is talking about the haunted house! But not Danielle's. Walt is still safe but the other haunted house is NOT! Once a year, for the month of October, the house is haunted by a violent ghost who is hunting for something. But what could he want so badly? Danielle must try and find out, thereby helping the ghost, move on. But how will this violent ghost respond? Has Danielle met her match? Walt is worried because he can't leave the house and the black cat tells him the ghost is more dangerous than anyone realizes.
Profile Image for Megan (lost among the stacks).
325 reviews17 followers
March 24, 2023
My love for these characters knows no bounds. I finish one book and immediately borrow the next one so there is no lapse in the story for me. In this installment, Danielle finds herself trying to help a ghost that is looking for a very specific item but only has one month each year to search the location. The ghost, Harvey, is a young teen that was said to have been murdered by his uncle the drunk for unknown reasons. He has been stuck on this side of the light because he wants the real truth to be known before he crosses over.

Harvey's method of getting help leave something to be desired. He wavers between a troubled teen that needs help and being a menace. He is vague about what he is searching for and insists that she will know it when she finds it. I was torn on my feelings for Harvey because of his actions, even if I did want him to find the truth so he could move on.

I originally liked Joe, but with each book I find his character a little bit more annoying. He brushes off everything that Danielle or Lily bring to him as if they are hysterical females. Yes, some of it cannot be explained but he is very close minded.
1,142 reviews18 followers
August 17, 2019
Another great read

Am quite.new.to this series, I have had.it on my to read pile for years and am.sorry now.I waited so.long ----the good.side.is.I have 21 books.to.read to get caught up----. Danielle inherits.a.haunted.house simple,.except.Danielle can see and interact with ghosts not so simple. Walt her houses ghost refused to believe he committed suicide and.won't let.Danielle rest till she solves the circumstances of his death. Thats book one this is book five. Walt ---having his death resolved is able.to move on but chooses to stay with Danielle who keeps finding trouble, in every book.she stumbles across a new haunting and has.to resolve the.ghosts problems but she does.it.in such an interesting way. The.characters are fun the stories.complex and the ghosts sometimes scary. The same.characters reappear in every book so the as you read the books.the relationships progress and grow with Walt and Danielles.relationship.being.the.backbone.of.every story, I can't wait to see where the Author takes.their.relationship in future.books and.to revisiting Fredricksport.
1,273 reviews
October 27, 2025
At what point is Danielle going to learn from past mistakes in how she does things? She never comes up with decent stories to cover for getting info from ghosts and continues to investigate or meet with angry spirits by herself; then she's shocked when people don't believer her or she gets into bad situations with no way to get help. Additionally, the author left items from the story unresolved - for instance, Danielle dropped her purse in a diner bathroom and items scattered. Someone the author didn't identify then found Danielle's credit card on the bathroom floor (which was odd to begin with because how would one credit card fall out of her wallet when nothing else did??). The book ends with no credit card issues nor identifying the lady who found the card - maybe that plays into the next book but it's frustrating either way. And once again, there is no resolution with the ghost as the book ends; did he cross over, did his uncle's case get re-opened, etc? Nothing gets resolved and readers are left hanging. Disappointing
Profile Image for Karolay Capellan.
128 reviews1 follower
May 6, 2025
This book!!!

I love this series with all my heart.

I think this series keeps getting better and better. This time, I was a lot more involved in the mystery; I actually found it more interesting than the mysteries in books 3 and 4. I don’t necessarily consider the mysteries themselves to be five-star material, BUT the reason I keep coming back is because I love these characters so much. I honestly can’t imagine a life where I wouldn’t want to revisit these books just to spend more time with them.

I loved Walt. I really loved him so freaking much. He’s not getting as much page time as he did in book one, which makes me a little sad, but there’s something so magical about Walt worrying for Danielle: when he thinks or senses that she’s in danger, it just hits. I love Lily so much. And Danielle; she holds a special place in my heart alongside Walt.

Honestly, these characters make the series. No matter what the mystery is about, I’m going to keep coming back for them. There’s something about these characters that makes the whole thing feel like home. Like a comfort place I can return to over and over again.

I loved the mystery in this one. And again, it’s my favorite mystery in the series so far. It even felt a little heartbreaking, I would say.
Profile Image for Linda.
1,595 reviews24 followers
January 7, 2019
A series can't possibly be better with every book but this one is! This is #5. I love every one. Each book can perfectly be read on its on but since they do build on each other it's best to read them in order.

Danielle Boatman, a widow who has inherited a mansion on the Oregon coast, can commune with spirits of people who have not yet moved on. Her home, Marlow House, has its own resident ghost and Walt, the ghost, is very protective of her. In this book there is another house nearby, one that is vacant and only haunted each year on Halloween. Something terrible happened there and a spirit is trying to find peace, but he is a mischievous ghost that sometimes borders on the side of malicious. As always, Danielle is trying to help a spirit move on but the local police department, who doesn't know her gift, suspects that she is part of the crime.

I'm already reading book #6!
Profile Image for Mary Corso.
1,146 reviews
May 22, 2021
enjoyable read (or listen)
It’s October and there are now two haunted houses in town. The other house has a mean ghost. Once again: phone, keys, wallet. NEVER leave home without all three.
I like Marie and her matchmaking schemes and I like Adam and his kind of a bad boy past but his “all is forgiven but not forgotten” relationship with Danielle. I’m kind of matchmaking between Danielle and the chief but pretty sure that’s going to happen. All the fun characters give this series it’s extra zeal. But, characters make really dumb mistakes again and again.

I seriously wonder if this author is taking money to endorse products in her books. It is unusual for an author to go into such detail about an object that isn’t that intricate to the plot.
Profile Image for Paul-Baptiste.
683 reviews3 followers
November 4, 2021
I am starting to enjoy this format of Holmes of basically writing one long, rambling, unending and interconnected "mystery" with each book an appendage to the last, picking up right where the last ended and keeping the same core host of characters. It's a world where everyone is frustratingly unhelpful, dumb, or a murderer (or all three) and poor Danielle is the little liar (I cannot count the times that Holmes has written the words "Danielle lied..." in the last five books) at the center, an apparent magnet for the frustratingly unhelpful, the dumb, and the murderers. It's fluff - as any good cozy mystery should be - with a supernatural twist that, despite not being original, is done in an slightly different way that makes it enjoyable.
Profile Image for Emmalynn.
2,938 reviews29 followers
March 29, 2023
Danielle, Lilly, Walt, and Sadie are back again. This time it’s more of a find the body and help a ghost rather than new murders happening. The bodies are connected to prior events surrounding Lily’s disappearance and kidnapping, as the two main culprits have escaped from jail and are on the run. The haunted house in the neighborhood is connected to the fugitives and a new woman in town trying yo befriend Danielle. There’s a disappearing body, a mischievous ghost who is Dream hopping into Danielle’s dreams two decades long murder that must be brought to light for a ghost to finally be at rest.

Det Joe is still a jerk! Ughhhh Danny seems to be coming around and not so antagonist towards Danielle. Slowly, those who were “enemies” are becoming “allies” as Danielle encounters more ghostly visitors.
Profile Image for ~Bellegirl91~.
853 reviews94 followers
July 26, 2024
Ooooookay! Now I'm REALLY loving these books/audios even more 😍 And they're super clever and well written murder mysteries. The characters are fun and relatable, has great character development, the story for a side ongoing story as well is spot on, and ugh! Everything about this book and series now is definitely a new underrated series. I'm so glad I picked these up when I did on Libby and always eager to get my hands on the Libby audios and kindle library books for them!

Also, I think so far besides the first book being the best one of the series, I have to say this one is my second favorite of the series yet which was a bit different, but had great twists to combine all the previous books in a way. 
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