Alice Bell grew up in South West England, in a sort of middle-of-nowhere where teenagers spend their weekend drinking Smirnoff Ice in a field that also has at least one horse in it. 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 Hallett The whole story is really, really good fun and it is a solid murder mystery, but the characters are what makes this a really special read.

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.

Funny, fast, sharp, original, and addictive ... a unique breath of fresh air. Brilliant!" - Andrea Mara Charlie and Lincoln return to London to find two supernaturals have been murdered, and Charlie might be next. As if that wasn't bad enough, the man who adopted her has escaped from prison, and the committee members have just learned some news that infuriates them. Now there's talk of sending Charlie away again. Far away.

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) Fast,funny, and furious, this book hasbags of humour, bags of heart, and a proper murder mystery at its core. Alice Bell is one to watch!” Grave Expectations by Alice Bell is a really fun paranormal crime fiction debut that kept me interested in both the characters and what would happen. I will say that listening to the audiobook means you have to really concentrate otherwise it is easy to miss things/get confused, and I did find myself having to rewind quite a bit because I wasn't paying close enough attention. That being said, the audiobook was still really great to listen to, and I thought Sophie Roberts did an excellent job with the narration. The accent was a little difficult for me to understand at times, so I did end up listening to this at around 2.5-2.8x speed; 2x speed in the car.Teaming up with the least unbearable members of the Wellington-Forge family - depressive ex-cop Basher and teenage radical Alex - Claire and Sophie determine to figure out not just whodunnit, but who they killed, why and when. I really enjoyed the insight to Lincoln and Charlie's past that was revealed; where we learn who Lincoln's father and orphanage Charlie was given up to. I absolutely loved the way Seth and Gus doted on Charlie like a sister and I love the newly introduced butler at Lincoln's household. The next book to be featured on the Zoe Ball Radio 2 Book Club will be Grave Expectations, an exciting debut novel by Alice Bell. The book was released on 4 May and Alice will be on the show with Zoe on Thursday 29 June.

Fast, funny and furious, this book has bags of humour, bags of heart and a proper murder mystery at its core' Janice Hallett Thisbook positively lit up my weekends. . . . A story that will both send chills down your spine and wrap you up in a hug.” Witty, addictive, andbreathes some much needed (undead) life into the cosy crimemurder mystery genre.” I really liked all the characters, especially Claire, Sophie and Alex. They all felt completely realistic even with their various eccentricities and there were some parts that made me genuinely laugh out loud. Although the story is primarily a mystery, it is very character driven and we spend a lot of time with the characters as their relationships develop. This slowed the pace down a bit, but also added an extra dimension and helped me to be more invested in the outcome. But in Grave Expectations we finally see Lincoln and Charlie commit to a serious relationship, the appearance of a serial killer targeting paranormal humans and the possibility that someone close to Lichfield Park is trying to harm Charlie. It was great to finally see the common thread connecting all the mysteries that the Ministry has encountered finally becoming evident, as the members confront kidnappings, betrayal and spirits from their past.

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I think that this series is slowly but surely starting to lose me. First of all, the set-up for this novel was, in large part, false (or at the very least, a gross exaggeration and clever manipulation of the truth). I don’t really understand why this is or why the author felt it necessary to spin the synopsis in the way that she did. To some degree, this set the tone for the novel.