HAUNTED BY A BROKEN OATH

In Armstrong’s paranormal mystery, a young woman, haunted by a ghost, joins her adoptive family’s private investigation business and becomes entangled in a case involving child kidnapping and trafficking.

In Rubyville, Virginia, 21-year-old private eye Justyne Diamond “JD” Wolfe is no stranger to tragedy. After she lost her mother to a hotel room fire at age 8, a stringy-haired, lavender-smelling female ghost who was haunting her drug-abusing mom transferred to her. Events often descend into chaos when the spirit’s spectral presence is around. Also, JD believes that the ghost abandoned her early on, when the young girl was molested by a 16-year-old boy in St. Francis’ Group Home for Lost Souls. A few years later, a military family adopted JD; they owned an agency called White Wolfe Investigations. Now, as an adult, she’s determined to prove her worth as a PI—and as a member of the Wolfe family. But JD’s first job goes awry, and soon, straightforward surveillance missions lead to an investigation into murders and kidnappings connected to an international trafficking organization. The pace of Armstrong’s mystery is swift, but it effectively allows space for a number of emotional subplots: JD grows close to a local baseball hero’s unclaimed child and his large, loving Italian family, and she explores her relationships with her own painting talent and with a scarred bomb-disposal veteran. She also investigates possible infidelity between her father and his deceased best friend’s wife. JD’s voice often seems distractingly mature for her age at times, but the novel’s treatment of her insecurity rings true throughout. Some readers may find a few comments problematic; there are multiple comparisons of characters to Asian celebrities but no Asian characters in the novel, other than a villainous one. Delicate subjects and traumatic recollections involve child sexual assault, human trafficking, suicide bombing, and PTSD.

A highly eventful but fast-paced supernatural thriller.