Happy Release Day!
Congratulations Mallory
on the release today of
So Transparent!
So Transparent by Mallory Pierce
Paranormal Cozy Mystery, 290 pages
Published October 27, 2025
Wedding bells are ringing in Woebrook, which is cause for celebration…until the Grim Reaper crashes the party.
The town’s resident celebrity, horror writer Nolan Drake, brings his ghostly housemate, Gwen, to the nuptials, and she’s excited to attend her first Frink family function in over a century. Too bad everything that can go wrong before the ceremony does, and all the snafus and drama culminate in wedding planner Natalie Doyle’s body being found face down in a pile of cake.
As Nolan (and in no small part Gwen) helped the police solve two recent murders, he’s recruited by the WPD’s cockiest cop to participate in a “bro-vestigation.” The men, and their tag-along spirit, soon learn that Natalie’s personal and professional lives were very complicated and messy. In the days leading to her demise, she was cheated on, stolen from, manhandled, sabotaged, and verbally accosted in public twice!
With a host of suspects lying through their teeth and pointing fingers at each other, this might be Nolan and Gwen’s toughest case yet. At least, it’s not ice-cold like Gwen’s own unsolved murder, which continues to haunt her. Will the discovery of a clue from the past finally set her on the path to putting that mystery to rest?
If you enjoy sassy sleuths and supernatural shenanigans, you won’t want to miss So Transparent! It’s similar in tone and content to the works of Paranormal Cozy Mystery authors Angie Fox, Danielle Garrett, and Amy Boyles.
(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first line.)
First lines—"Lying in a supine position atop an exam table with an elastic strap wrapped around the base of his skull, Nolan looked as though he was being subjected to some form of medieval torture."
This series is so much fun and So Transparent is book three of the series, so there's a lot of paranormal fun to be had.
Nolan and Gwen work together to solve murders with Nolan working directly with the police to solve the cases. Gwen feeds him a lot of useful information that she is able to discover using her ghostly powers. I love their relationship and how they feed off of each other to solve the case. I am constantly chuckling at their antics.
Natalie, the wedding planner, isn't having a very good day. All of the plans for this beautiful wedding are falling apart, due to no fault of her own—someone is out to get her. And then when she is found face down in the wedding cake, things definitely aren't going her way. But then that's when the fun begins, with Nolan and Gwen on the case, discovering who dunnit.
Along with the murder cases that they always find themselves in the midst of, they are also trying to uncover the truth of Gwen's demise. That is an ongoing case and I am totally invested in learning the truth about that.
I highly recommend So Transparent and it's the perfect Halloween read for right now! I devoured it and I look forward to more antics and crime-solving from Gwen and Nolan. Check it out!
I received an ARC of So Transparent and this is my honest opinion.
Read my thoughts about That's the Spirit!
Read my thoughts about Ghost with the Most
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Excerpt
Marcus retreated inside the townhouse and was about to shut the big, black door in the other men’s faces when I shouted, “Wait! We don’t know his whereabouts at the time of Natalie’s death!”
Nolan’s hand jutted out to stop the door from shutting. “Where were you between four forty-five and five forty-five this afternoon?”
Marcus poked his tousled head through the crack between the door and its frame. “Is this book writer seriously asking me for an alibi?” he posed the question to Warmond, and yes, he put a disdainful emphasis on the word ‘book’, which conveyed his lack of appreciation for that art form.
“If you have one, we could cross you off the suspect list,” the police officer said with a hopeful lilt in his voice.
Marcus glowered. “I went for a run to burn off some steam after getting that text about the baby from Nat.”
Smiling with relief, Warmond turned to Nolan and said, “Did you hear that? He went for a run, which makes perfect sense because athletes have to stay in shape.”
Warmond might have been satisfied by Marcus’s response, but I wasn’t. “As far as alibis go, that’s a very vague one. Try and extract more details from him.”
“Where did you go for this run?” Nolan inquired.
“There’s a sweet running path down by the river,” Warmond noted with a glance back at the darkened water.
“He’s feeding the man answers!” I exclaimed with dismay.
“Yeah, that’s where I like to run,” Marcus said.
“He’s still being vague. You need to pin him down!” I urged Nolan.
“How many miles did you run this afternoon?” he asked our suspect.
“Not sure,” was his noncommittal response.
“Your Garmin” —Nolan gestured at the large-faced black watch strapped to Marcus’s left wrist— “should have that information, and its GPS would have logged your location at the time of Natalie’s death.”
“Good thinking!” Warmond gave Nolan an Attaboy! slug to the arm before telling Marcus, “I can confirm your alibi by checking the data on your Garmin.” He reached out his hand, clearly expecting his friend to turn over the watch.
“I didn’t have it on earlier,” Marcus claimed, then crossed his arms over his chest in a defiant stance.
“So, you went for a run without your running watch, but you’re wearing it now just to lounge around the house?” Nolan’s disbelief, which I shared, was evident in his tone.
“I’m done answering questions. If the police” —he looked pointedly at Warmond “want to ask me anything else, they can contact my lawyer.” And with that proclamation, Marcus slammed the door shut, leaving Warmond and Nolan to stare at it in dumbfounded shock.
“You know what one of the best things about being a ghost is?” I asked Nolan, who turned to me with a raised eyebrow.
“I can enter a home and look around without a search warrant,” I said with a smirk, then walked right through the closed door.
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About the author
Connect with Mallory
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Mallory Pierce is a third-generation graveyard enthusiast (tombstones tell such interesting stories!), reader of Nancy Drew, player of Clue, devout dissectologist (look it up!), and the owner of several fetching trench coats. So, it makes perfect sense that she spends her days writing stories about a plucky, crime-solving ghost.
Despite having visited haunted houses from San Jose to Savannah, Mallory has yet to have a close encounter with anyone from the Great Beyond and that’s probably for the best because she’s sort of a wimp. Shhhhh, don’t tell anyone.
Ghost With the Most is the second book in the GhostWriter Mystery Series, which is penned by Mallory Pierce (a pseudonym of award-winning Romantic Comedy author Tracie Banister).
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Thanks so much for reading and reviewing, Susan. I'm so glad you're enjoying the series! :)
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