Tea by the Sea Mysteries Book 7
Author: Vicki Delany
Genre: Mystery
Hardcover; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781496757630
Kensington Cozies
304 Pages
$27.00; TBA
July 28, 2026
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
While they enjoy Lily's homemade banana bread the next morning, they make their intentions clear--grilling Lily about any past paranormal activity in the cliffside mansion. Their attempts to contact spirits have been falling flat, it seems, and the mysterious Katya is catching the heat. Levelheaded Lily thinks the real reason is that there's no such thing as ghosts.
But Lily's pal Bernie has found another explanation: the half-baked spirit-seekers have the wrong house. The haunted reputation belongs to the place next door -- where Lily's gardener boyfriend is currently staying. But before they can inform the luckless ladies, the missing medium shows up--dead on the rocks at the bottom of the cliff. Now Lily has two jobs: serving afternoon tea and solving a murder before someone else gets sent to the great beyond...
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Lily owns Tea by the Sea, a teahouse that serves real English teas. It's adjacent to her grandmother Rose's B&B, where Lily makes the breakfasts for the guests. But on this night, Rose has asked Lily to check out the B&B, because she thinks current guests are going against the rules -- and she's right. Five women are in the house with lit candles trying to do what Lily doesn't know and doesn't care -- and tells them the no smoking rule applies to candles.
While most of the women are very nice about it, one seems irritated, and she blames someone named Katya who never showed up to lead their 'book group'. But it's not long after that Katya's body is discovered on the rocks below, and the police determine that it wasn't an accident, and she was drowned.
Now everyone staying at the B&B is a suspect. Two of the women's husbands show up, and they aren't happy about the situation, but stay anyway to support their wives. Lily wonders if either of them are the guilty party, but doesn't want to get involved.
Lily does discover that the women think the B&B is haunted by ghosts, but both she and her grandmother know this is hogwash. Her best friend Bernie, however, does some digging and finds out that it's the house next door -- home to Bernie's boyfriend Matt, a successful true crime writer, who has the 'ghosts' lingering about. With Bernie and Rose wanting to know more, they're surprised when a woman shows up and complicates the situation...
Now Lily is trying to figure out not only what is going on, but which person had the best motive to want to kill...
This is the seventh book in the series and I have read them all. This one is one of the best of those. Lily is once again involved in a murder situation where she doesn't want to be, and she's not getting as much information as she usually does. But are there ghosts? Lily doesn't believe in them, but Bernie does. Finding the truth isn't going to be easy, but the two women are determined to do so. Even if one of them might just be in danger...
I really loved the plot of this one. (As a side note, I do believe in ghosts, but I won't elaborate why). I love that Lily is so level-headed and doesn't get flustered or do anything illegal, and she shares what information that she does find with Detective Redmond as soon as possible. The two women are learning respect for each other. I also enjoy the fact that Lily is finding her way with her British boyfriend, who is their gardener, and sometime-helper of Lily in preparing food for the next days' teas.
There's a lot going on here, and finding clues isn't easy, although they are there. I had suspicions of the murderer before Lily did, but then again, I read a lot of mysteries; still, it's always fun to watch her come to her conclusion in finding the truth, and the climax was worth reading the entire book for.
I don't want to say anything else in order not to ruin the book for others, but in the end, this is a welcome addition to the series, and I would highly recommend that others read this.
I was given an advance copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley but this in no way influenced my review.
More on Vicki Delany's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/d/vicki-delany/
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