A Medium’s Birthday Surprise by Chariss K. Walker is the first book in the “Becky Tibbs: A North Carolina Medium” cozy paranormal mystery series. Published: June 2018.
Becky Tibbs is a sweet girl, maybe a little too sweet, but it’s difficult to fault her for an innocent nature. Some might consider her naïve. And she is. She’s had little knowledge of a larger world others might live outside North Carolina. On the other hand, she’s had a lot of experience dealing with ghost problems.
Becky didn’t ask for the job of medium, but after her parents died, the unusual ability became a bequest – a gift handed down from her mother’s side of the family. An optimistic and positive young woman, Becky determines to make the best of a difficult situation in a small town where the smallest detail is noticed and everyone knows everything about everyone else.
Living in Asheville, North Carolina, Becky deals with a lot of departed spirits in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Such a job can get rather hectic at times. Misunderstood ghosts can create a lot of sticky problems for the living and a community such as hers.
Becky has the gift the same as her brother and sister. The only difference is that her siblings don’t want anything to do with their paranormal abilities and they’ll do anything in their power to drown out those disembodied souls who plead for help.
Used to dealing with ghosts on a daily basis, Becky is not easily surprised. However, on her 26th birthday, Becky gets the biggest shock she’s had in the past ten years and it’s a doozy.
Join Becky as she solves many mysteries in this light, clean, airy, and informative series.
I enjoyed this book that features Becky and her family. She tells us how she came about her gift of talking to ghosts and took on the role of helping them cross over to the other side. In this case, her old boyfriend returns on her 26th birthday filled with anger, not at her, but at being trapped and not knowing how to enact justice on the person responsible for his death. And that is where Becky comes in.
This book immediately grabbed my attention, quickly becoming a page turner. This was a fast-paced whodunit with a “feel-good” atmosphere. I like the premise and the comfortable tone that the author presented making it easy to follow along with the narration. The mystery was designed to keep me involved in all that was happening as Becky sought out the truth. From meeting Becky to Bobby to Barbara to Josh to Marty to Hillary to Jacob and her parents, they all played pivotal roles in helping Becky succeed in her tasks. With a quirky cast of characters and engaging dialogue, this was a good read and I liked my visit with Becky and her friends, I already purchased the next three books so I could return to Asheville with Becky’s next adventures.