This is the second book in the series about Claire and her best friend Sophie who has been haunting her since they were 17. Claire finds herself stranded on a remote island off Ireland when things go awry whilst she’s on holiday with Basher and Alex. A motley crew of pirate ghosts in rivalry with the local Irish ghosts, hidden treasure, a reunited group of university friends… what could possibly go wrong until Claire discovers a dead body in the middle of the night. Another funny murder mystery with several twists and turns along the way.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Atlantic Books for an arc in exchange for a review.

I'm afraid this really didn't click with me. It probably didn't help that I've not read Grave Expectations so had to get to grips with the characters from the off. The description sounded fun and clever enough to make me want to read it even though this is not my usual genre. I was hoping it would be a bit like 'Ghosts' on tv. Unfortunately, I just found it a little too glib and quirky. The stolen treasure plot just didn't grab me and by the time of the first murder I had already lost interest. I found the mechanics of Claire being able to hear Sophie (and the other ghosts) but having to report her speech to other people just too confusing and distracting. The big caveat is that I suspect that if you like this genre (Richard Osman, Janice Hallett etc) and are closer to Gen Z than I am, you may well love this. For me it was a DNF at half way when I had to accept that it just wasn't my thing.

Alex and Basher decide to take Claire, and by default, Sophie, on holiday to Spike Island on the Cork coast of Ireland. When they get there, it appears that there was a mistake in the booking and another group are there and aren't happy that the trio are staying.
When the next morning one of the other group is found dead on the beach, Even more strange that their mobiles have all gone missing and the boat has been scuppered.
It's down to Claire and her ghostly friends to save the day, but not before putting herself in danger.
A nice little read.

Displeasure Island is a ghost-murder-mystery story about thirty-something Claire and her childhood friend Sophie who disappeared at the age of 17 and reappeared as a ghost which only Claire can see. It’s a follow on from the first book in the series, Grave Expectations. I think Displeasure Island would work as a stand-alone, but I enjoyed knowing the characters from the earlier book.

This time there is a “locked room” mystery on an island which features ghost pirates, a sassy non-binary teenager and maybe some romance.

A recommended read!

Displeasure Island is the second novel in the Grave Expectations series and after the stressy events of the first novel Claire and the gang take a much needed holiday to a wellness retreat on a remote island off the coast of Ireland. Chaos in the form of a turf war between ghostly pirates and a group of equally dead wreckers, treasure hunters and murder ensue. This was great fun, it’s like And Then There Were None but with ghosts. Everyone except Claire seems quite casual about the whole murder situation throughout and there was quite a bit of Claire bashing in general from everybody including her friends (who pretty much abandoned her with a murderer on the loose?!) which I got quite angry about but she did get a snog so 🤷‍♀️

Claire and her sidekick (or main character, really) Sophie the ghost, are back for more murder and madness. Super funny and a really good sequel.

Following the events of ‘Grave Expectations’, ‘Displeasure Island’ sees Claire, Basher and Alex, all still friends, and going on a mini holiday following the stress of the court case involving all of Basher and Alex’s family. (See Grave Expectations for details.) Due to a booking mishap the gang find themselves on an island, before the luxury spa hotel has actually opened, just with the owner’s closest friends. Or rather frenemies. When one of the guests is murdered it’s down to Claire, Sophie and the local ghosts to find the culprit.

Once again, this is really, really funny. Sophie is such a great character, she utterly steals the show and I just always feel so sorry for Claire! There’s so many great characters, it’s really the writer’s strength, the cast and the place come across so vividly (even the ghosts).

The main themes of class and of not fitting in are still played out here but I do feel like Claire is on a journey to some sort of resolution. And the story of Sophie’s murder is still there to be discovered, I’m so intrigued about what happened here.

There were twists and turns and a fabulous grand reveal of the murderer. This is a good story which doesn’t take itself too seriously and I love it for that - it’s just fun.

Would highly recommend both books for a jolly good read.

Thank you @AtlanticBooks and @netgalley for my #arc

Like its predecessor, this is a heart-warming tale of a quasi-depressed 30-something medium solving crime with her best friend - who happens to have been dead for almost 20 years. Think ''Knives Out for the chronically online generation(s)''. Read it for the likeable characters, clever jokes, and the sense of mystery. I say sense of mystery, because there is an actual mystery here, but it didn't really get the gears turning for me. Similarly, there are some horror elements in this (with ghosts and skeletons and some such), but to me the actual horror was in the painfully recognisable observations about the plight of 30-somethings in this day and age. The story proudly wears both it Britishness and its progressive politics on its sleeve, which is a plus in my book but your mileage may vary. Warmly recommended reading while recovering from a long week of mind-numbing office work, preferably with a scone and a big pot of tea.

Alice Bell has written a sequel to Grave Expectations, Displeasure Island. Anyone reading the second book without having read the first is going to be quite bewildered, I’m afraid – you really need to read Grave Expectations before Displeasure Island in order to understand the characters’ background.

The opening chapter is a cracker. A bathroom with red everywhere: small speckles; smears; and dripping lines – all “bright, deep arterial red” – with a body lying half in, half out of the bath, with a lifeless pale pink hand… As I wrote about Grave Expectations, this is a book written by a pin-sharp intellect, an author who knows how to play with the reader; and who quietly inserts clues that the reader overlooks at the time. The author gently nudges the reader into a mindset, building our expectation about will happen next, before the narrative goes at right-angles to our expectation and we feel like Wile E Coyote, running in mid-air. That’s the sign of a highly skilled writer and I love to read books of whatever genre by authors with that ability.

Claire and her friends, including the ghost of her best friend, Sophie, killed at seventeen, book a holiday in a hotel just off the coast of Ireland. There are ghosts of sailors and ghosts of pirates who, unsurprisingly, have been enemies for a few hundred years. There is, naturally, treasure – which, the ghosts being ghosts cannot move, but someone has been moving it at night. Then, unexpectedly, there is a murder and Claire is accused.

I enjoyed this novel. The characterisation is good, although I did lose patience with Claire on several occasions – I felt her reaction was inconsistent with the action. This may have been done to progress the plot, but it didn’t feel right. I also felt initially that there were too many couples to remember who’s who but we do need that many for the plot to work, although a little more delineation as characters are introduced would help the reader. They are mostly introduced all at once, in a group, which doesn’t help. The plot is really good with several unexpected twists, although there were a few points where I felt some plot progression could have been more natural – there were a few points where characters’ action/reaction felt artificial / forced to pit the plot requirements. The (sweary) dialogue is often funny, although Sophie wasn’t as enjoyable as the first book. The narration has many laugh out loud moments.

Do note: this is a VERY sweary book. The f-word is scattered liberally throughout the text, as well as another word that would make maiden aunts blench. One could discuss whether or not this is appropriate, but I accept it is the way younger people talk these days and this is a modern book. The dialogue, therefore, is realistic. The discussion, therefore, is better framed as “Should people use swearwords when talking to each other?” If the answer is “yes”, then books should reflect real life and there is no case to answer. We might object to modern mores, but elders have always complained that standards are slipping since the ancient Greeks and probably earlier! Nonetheless, if you dislike seeing such words in print, don’t read this book.

#DispleasureIsland #NetGalley

Thank you to NetGalley and Atlantic Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review..

As with the first book, there are way too many characters - Claire, Alex, Basher and ghost Sophie come to Spike Island near Cork in Ireland for a holiday, but there are eight other guests plus a caretaker they have to contend with.

So it starts slow but the more you read the faster the action goes, and the more investigatoring they do the more interesting it gets.

First, a male guest gets murdered, then a female one. There are loads of ghost pirates on the island too, but they are not terribly interested in helping as they've got their own feud going on with each other about a treasure they're guarding somewhere.

Not as funny as the first one, but we get more ghost interaction and make the shocking discovery that ghosts can be dangerous and hurt you. Claire is kind of a little inept, and everyone seems to be distracted by hot men, dead or alive ones. To me Sophie is the most interesting character of them all - I do hope we will one day find out what happened to her to make her a ghost.

This series is an adorable mix of genuinely laugh out loud funny, mystery / amateur detective and supernatural. Displeasure island builds on the success of the first book, Grace Expectations, and takes Claire, Sophie, Basheer and Alex to an Irish island for murder, ghostly pirates and treasure. As you do.

Loved the development of the central characters, worked out some of the clues as I went along but by no means all, and have a very dim view of reviews which don’t like the swearing, which is both naturalistic and funny.

More please!

Absolutely loved being back with Claire and Sophie and was really pleased to see the new book in the series includes Alex and Uncle Basher! Another great murder mystery with plenty to keep you turning the pages. Hoping there’s another book to come.

Claire and her ghostly companion, Sophie, are persuaded to join their close friends on a relaxing break at a wellness spa retreat on a small island just off the Irish coast. The retreat has only just opened and the owner exclusively invited a small group of old university friends. However an error is made and Claire and her friends are also booked in at the same time. There is immediate friction between the members of the two groups. There is then a murder and tensions and suspicions increase.

The island is also home to a several ghostly factions with the pirates trying to invade the fort held by the Irish soldiers whilst also tying to recover some lost treasure. There is a nice balance of humour throughout as Claire stumbles her way through solving the murder and also unraveling the mystery of the missing pirate treasure.

A strong point of this book is that the scenery and details of the island, the weather and tides are very carefully described and gives a good sense of place.

This is the second book in this series and having thoroughly enjoyed the first I had high expectations. However, although it presents some quirky characters this story did not hold my attention as much as the first book did and I finished it feeling a little disappointed. The dialogue in places felt rushed and the amount of swearing I felt was excessive and detracted from the story.

This is the second book in the ‘Grave Expectations’ series. I enjoyed the first book last year and was keen to rejoin the characters on a new adventure.

Claire is in her 30’s and a medium, helped by her best friend Sophie - a ghost who is perpetually 17 years old. Claire, Sophie along with their friends Basher and Alex decide to holiday on Spike Island, of the West Coast of Ireland. Things don’t quite go to plan when it turns out the hotel is unfinished and has been double-booked alongside a private visit of the owner’s university friends. Add in a pirate ghost and several other local ghosts in conflict over treasure lost hundreds of years ago plus a murder and it’s all set up for Claire to start investigating and trying to clear her name after becoming a suspect.

I really enjoyed being back with the characters from the first book again and meeting some new ones too although it did take me a little while to get clear with who was who. I liked the further exploration in this book of the relationship between Claire and Sophie and the impact this has had on Claire over the years they have been bonded. The book also has good humour and dialogue between the characters. I felt it was easy and enjoyable to read. I think I maybe preferred the setting of the first book more and I did guess some of the ‘reveals’ quite early but was still surprised by others and this did not take away from my enjoyment. I also really like the paranormal aspect to this mystery series.

I am looking forward to more books in this series and I would love to explore further what happened to Sophie and to make steps towards solving that mystery.

I am rating this book 3.75 stars (rounded up to 4 stars).

Thank you to the publisher, Atlantic Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

It was great to catch up with the characters after leaving them in Grave Expectations, one of my top reads of last year.
In this instalment Claire, Sophie, Alex and Basher are on holiday in Ireland when they are asked by a pirate ghost to investigate the theft of treasure. Theres another murder and some more ghosts in this instalment - what’s not to love 👻

'Displeasure Island' is the second novel from Alice Bell, following the hugely successful 'Grave Expectations'. In this book, we rejoin C, Sophie, Alex and Uncle Basher as they take a holiday at a retreat on an isolated Irish island. With undertones of a Christie 'locked room' mystery, this modern mystery has a well-balanced ensemble cast, excellent dialogue with good comic timing, and a good pace that encourages the reader to keep turning the pages.

The only thing that distracted me was that I guessed some of the ending very early on. Bell plays fair with the clues, dropping them into the plot with an often delicate touch, and sewing plenty of red herrings along the way, but I like to be kept guessing right to the last minute.

What I absolutely loved about this book is how much more we saw of Sophie and her own subplots - having Sophie, C and their relationship is what differentiates this book from a lot of others and makes it stand out in both paranormal and mystery genres. Genuinely cannot wait for book three, as I'll be first in line!

This second book in the series about 30 something Claire and her best friend, 17 year old Sophie (who happens to be a ghost) is a fast paced murder mystery. This time it is set on a remote Irish island haunted by lots of ghosts (pirates, Irish soldiers and long dead prisoners). When Claire, Sophie, Basher and Alex get trapped on this island with a party of strangers, someone is murdered and everyone is a suspect! Great fun ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Grave Expectations, the first in this series about a 30-something medium and the ghost of her teenage best friend who is her constant companion, was one of my top reads of 2023. I loved the strong vein of humour running through it, which was accompanied by strong characterisation and a gripping plot which didn't ever feel too far-fetched (or, as much as is possible in a book where the main character talks to ghosts).

I was therefore really excited to read Displeasure Island, but unfortunately this fell a bit flat to me. While the first book felt well developed, I had a constant feeling of being rushed through the action this time around, with some characters barely developed and even sometimes a feeling that the ends of paragraphs had been cut off, because a conversation or description would just stop without really making sense. This might be an issue with the e-galley or it might be that this second book has had less time spent on it, but it feels a shame as there's still a lot to enjoy. Main character Claire and the ghost of Sophie remain good company (although I got annoyed with Claire a number of times - and her getting the hump with Basher and Alex seemed crow-barred in to provide some conflict rather than something genuinely convincing).

As with the first book, the ghosts - this time of pirates and Irish soldiers - had a lot of the good lines (in this respect it shares something in common with the TV show Ghosts) and the humour was still strong. I just didn't love it like I did the first book.

It was a very exciting read to delve into the world of Spike Island for relaxation only to end up entwined with treasure, murder and mystery.