Grave Expectations: The hilarious and gripping BBC Radio 2 Book Club pick for 2023

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I love Claire and Sophie, Basher and Alex, and how their little Scooby gang develops as the story progresses from faceless mystery ghosts to a possible murder investigation within a rich and deeply dysfunctional family. And as an added bonus, Claire has a secret past of her own that she doesn’t want her new friends to uncover, and the biggest event in Sophie’s teen life remains a mystery to her and Claire, which remains outstanding even after the book’s dramatic reveal. To compound this, Charlie’s emotional response to Mrs. Webb after she kidnaps her, shoots her friend, and almost killed her was disconcerting and off-putting. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t screaming for Mrs. Webb’s death here, but the immediate compassion and “Don’t even scare her, Lincoln!” pleas were ridiculous. I’m all for empathy and forgiveness but this just didn’t seem believable to me at all.

You've never read a country house whodunit quite like Grave Expectations. Nor is there a generation gap quite as wide as the one between Claire and Sophie. Fast, funny and furious, this book has bags of humour, bags of heart and a proper murder mystery at its core. Alice Bell writes with real verve and crafts a preposterous premise into a sharp, well written and lively story that's at once out of this world and yet reassuringly real. As reader, you're along for the ride, and it's a runaway ghost train of a ride at that! Bell is one to watch. -- Janice HallettThe concept of Grave Expectations is nothing short of delightful and the novel shines best when it’s exploring the ramifications of being a medium and being one in the modern day. Tonally it reads like Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) meets Midsomer Murders (the show, not the much-darker books by Caroline Graham): charming, breezy, with moments of pathos and darkness scattered throughout what is a predominantly light book. I enjoyed almost all of this except the ending which I really wasn't all that surprised about. To me it felt like just another version of the big "misunderstanding" that's always present in any novel featuring any type of romance. A really unique concept paired with whip-smart writing and lots of heart -- Heather Darwent, author of The Things We Do to Our Friends Claire and Sophie are best friends, inseparable you might say. Unfortunately that’s because Sophie is a ghost & she’s been haunting Claire since her murder at 17. Claire can now see & speak to a multitude of ghosts, and is trying to earn a living as a professional medium carrying out seances. This is a mystery with a paranormal twist as several ghosts help out along the way. Claire & Sophie are still best friends even though one of them is dead & some of their conversations are like those conducted between slightly exasperated siblings. The mystery itself is rather thin, there's not a great deal of actual detecting even though Claire is a self-confessed crime show addict. There were one or two laugh out loud bits though - I particularly liked the misheard Spice Girls lyrics one. Yes, it lost its way a little in the middle but overall it was a nice little paranormal mystery with a humorous edge. 3.5 stars (rounded up)

When Claire is hired to be the entertainment by an old ‘friend’ from University at a family gathering at their country pile, The Cloisters, she can’t afford to refuse. Things get complicated when Claire & Sophie realise someone has come to an untimely end at the house, and almost everyone seems to be hiding something. After spending several years in London, Alice now lives in Cork in Ireland. She has probably read more detective fiction and watched more episodes of Midsomer Murders than you. A word from Alice Funny, fast, sharp, original, and addictive ... a unique breath of fresh air. Brilliant! -- Andrea Mara Thisbook positively lit up my weekends. . . . A story that will both send chills down your spine and wrap you up in a hug.”A very funny, entertaining, twisted take on the country house murder mystery. Wonderful." - S J Bennett Speaking of inconsistencies, let’s talk about Mrs. Webb for a moment. Are you honestly going to try to convince me that an insignificantly average woman ON HER OWN could lift not only Charlie by herself but Gus as well?? You’re kidding, right? I’ve personally tried to lift someone who was a complete dead-weight (and probably weighed 90 pounds soaking wet) with the help of another woman and it was ridiculously hard (and PS, I’m not a weak person). So yeah, no. I don’t think I can believe that. As I stated in my last review of Beyond the Grave (#3), the things that hadn’t irritated me in the first 2 novels, were starting to wear me down and send up red flags by the third book in the series. And, I think once those issues became glaring, I haven’t been able to forget them or turn them off during my time reading Grave Expectations (#4). The inconsistencies in this series are becoming too much. When the pair arrive at The Cloisters it's clear this family is hiding more than just the good china, as Claire realizes someone has recently met an untimely end at the house. Teaming up with the least unbearable members of the Wellington-Forge family - depressive ex-cop Basher and teenage reactionary Alex - Claire and Sophie determine to figure out not just whodunnit, but who they killed, why and when.