Paula Munier’s Mercy Carr mysteries just continue to get better. With the fifth one, Home at Night, Munier enters the world of gothic houses and Halloween settings. Of course, fans of the series will welcome the return of the dogs, Elvis and Susie Bear. But, it’s the eerie setting of Grackle Tree Farm that takes center stage.

It’s getting crowded in Mercy’s small cabin after her marriage to Troy Warner who adds Susie Bear to the mix that already includes Amy, a teenager mother with her daughter, Helena, and Amy’s boyfriend, Brodie. When Mercy learns Grackle Tree Farm might be on the market, she’s eager to take a look at the property. When she was in middle school, she accepted a dare to spend the night in the Victorian haunted house. Twenty years later, she’s ready to see it again.

Everyone in the area knows Euphemia Whitney-Jones’ poem “The Ghost Witch of Grackle Tree”. Jones’ family owned the property. Although the poet spend much of the year in Paris, she would return home to the property that held her secrets. And, those secrets were protected by Levi Beecher, the property’s caretaker for fifty years. Now, the house was on the market, the gothic manor Mercy Carr always wanted when she was a girl reading Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.

But, others have an eye on the house and its secrets, including Mercy’s great-uncle and the state’s only billionaire. They ask Mercy to be careful after she and Troy find a dead man in the house. But, they also want Mercy to keep an eye out for secrets. When she returns with Captain Thrasher, Troy’s mentor, she, Thrasher, and Elvis are ambushed. Thrasher is left in critical condition and Mercy is on crutches. But, that isn’t going to stop her from investigating the secrets that Euphemia Whitney-Jones left behind. She may have to contend with poets and local druids who clamor for attention, but she’s determined to find justice and truth for the woman who owned the property that Mercy covets.

No spoilers. Munier’s latest book combines local Halloween celebrations, a house and property with secrets, and an investigation into crimes of the present and past. But, Munier also deals beautifully with the environment as Troy Warner and co-workers deal with poachers, and threatened turtle species. Troy’s own investigation is an essential element in the story.

Home at Night also manages to encompass the question of home. What does home mean? Is it a place, a structure, the people and animals who surround us? Mercy, who is losing the cabin she loves, searches for answers in her heart.

Looking for a Halloween story with a spooky house? You can’t go wrong with Paula Munier’s Home at Night.

Paula Munier’s website is https://paulamunier.com/

Home at Night by Paula Munier. MInotaur Books, 2023. ISBN 9781250887894 (hardcover), 352p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a galley through NetGalley in order to review the book for a journal.