Hey, this is a two-hundred-page 'Eternal Bed and Breakfast' novel! That's easily the longest so far but it's also the last. Beth Dolgner left herself a lot to wrap up. The good news is that she handles that capably, while leaving open the possibility of a return. This certainly ends the series arc, but that doesn't mean it's the end of the series, perhaps just a cycle within it. There are two novellas that I believe work as standalones and one of them, 'Halloween Vibes', takes place three months after this.

However, Dolgner seems to write one series at a time and has moved on to 'Nightmare, Arizona', currently standing at ten books, and now 'Crones of a Feather', with one book out and two on the way, so I wouldn't hold my breath for more 'Eternal Rest Bed and Breakfast'. Maybe Oak Hill has calmed down somewhat, now the barrier around it has been restored for another decade and the events of this novel take care of the various threads that wound their way through the previously weakened barrier before that happened. If so, maybe the bodies will start to add up around 2030 or so and a return would be warranted.

The most obvious of those threads shows up quickly here. If you'll recall, Sage has no power at the moment so it's up to Emily to lead the Spirited Saturday Night séance at Eternal Rest. It has to be the shortest and wildest, with the house shuddering from audible booms and glasses shattering in the kitchen. Resident ghost Kelly says that it's the scary ghost. It came through the barrier before it was restored, so now they have to deal with it. I've been waiting for that but my favourite angle to this particular séance is that Sage gets to experience it just like a regular person. Something is happening but she can't sense it and that makes it an eye opener for her.

Certainly it converts a couple of skeptics staying at the B&B but it turns out that the other couple aren't just believers, they're here to check the place out for a TV documentary series. Steven and Rylee aren't father and daughter but producer and talent, though the real star of the show won't arrive until the morning. She's Tessa Valentine, who Sage calls a hack. She also advises that Emily decline their offer to be a location for the show, now that Rylee has confirmed that it's genuinely haunted.

And so we're moving with the episode story. Tessa is overly dramatic, clearly a diva who relishes in being so. However, when Trish delivers breakfast and realises who'll be staying there, she reveals that she's a big fan of hers. Vic Orman is Tessa's assistant, who's rude, smug and dismissive. He booked all four rooms for the rest of the week, which is why this is a surprise for Emily, who would have recognised Tessa's name. Talking of surprises, an unexpected guest soon arrives too, Tessa's boyfriend Brian, to celebrate their six-month anniversary.

Most importantly, Rylee feels like a genuine psychic medium but Tessa seems to be fake, as Sage suggests. She sensed ghosts at Eternal Rest that aren't there, but not any of those that are, and we've spent six books learning about the place. What she tells us doesn't fit in the slightest. That probably means that it's unsurprising when Tessa is murdered, but she isn't killed until quite late in the book, disappearing much earlier but then showing up again. If anyone's hurling accusations of formula at the series, as may be fair for any cozy mysteries, I should suggest that 'Quiet Nights' varies that formula impressively.

For instance, Tessa has a regular protestor, Bernie Moss, who soon shows up on the B&B's lawn to do what she does, but Dolgner cleverly puts her to two uses rather than one. Sure, she's an overt suspect after Tessa's murdered, but she also serves as a useful source of information. There can't be too many people who know more about someone's routine than a protestor who follows them everywhere. Similarly, I like the idea that psychic mediums don't just come in two forms, the ones with real talent and the ones that don't have any. Maybe there are some who have some genuine talent but, for whatever reason, bulk that up wildly with sheer imagination.

Of course, you know exactly who I'm talking about there, I'm sure, but her reason is good and the complications that follow her death, in this series where murder victims count as good witnesses, are even better. The scenes at Seeing Beyond, Sage's business, are surely my favourites this time out, with Tessa just as touchy in death as she was in life. I'm hardly going to complain at having to spend time in a bookshop too, Under the Covers.

The episode story is a strong one and probably the biggest success of the book is that Dolgner has it unfold naturally as if it was the whole point, even though she also has plenty of work to do with the series arc. I never felt that I was being kept away from one to serve the other. Dolgner keeps both active and engaging, even while dancing carefully between them. One way that happens so well is that, while Scott has made it to Eternal Rest, so did the scary ghost and he can't come out and talk when he's in hiding. Yes, there's a direct connection between Scott and the scary ghost, a connection that goes back a long way, but, as with anything in this volume, it isn't quite what you might expect.

Dolgner had many threads to tie up but she manages it well. Maybe the Lily angle seems a bit too optimistic and it deserved a little more time to end more naturally. The same goes for the Scott angle. There's still more to learn about Oak Hill too, but there's a strong explanation for the bulk of what we've experienced there. Now we understand the situation at hand and what's being done to manage it. We have quite a big picture. What we don't have is an explanation for the explanation, if that makes sense. We have the what now. We don't necessarily have the why.

I've thoroughly enjoyed my run through the seven 'Eternal Rest Bed and Breakfast' series. I have read and enjoyed cozy mysteries before but I don't recall any supernatural cozy mysteries. That's not Dolgner's only genre, but it seems to be where she stayed for 'Nightmare, Arizona', following her move from Georgia (the state, not the country) to Tucson, via, it seems, Germany. I'm unsure as to whether that series is complete at ten books or still ongoing, so I may or may not dive into it immediately. Maybe I'll take a break, with so many other Arizona authors on my shelves to read, and find my way there next year. Whenever it'll be, I'm looking forward to it. ~~ Hal C F Astell

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