Salem B&B Mystery

A grieving young widow, Charlene needed a new start - so she bought a historic mansion, sight unseen, and drove from Chicago to New England to start turning it into a bed-and-breakfast. On her first night in the house, she awakens to find a handsome man with startling blue eyes in her bedroom. Terror turns to utter disbelief when he politely introduces himself as Jack Strathmore - and explains that he used to live here - when he was alive. He firmly believes that someone pushed him down the stairs three years ago, and he won't be able to leave until someone figures out who.

Charlene, recently widowed, has renovated her historic mansion just in time to greet guests arriving for the town's annual Halloween festivities. She's lucky to have a helpful staff to provide support - as well as a handsome ghost named Jack standing invisibly by her side. Unfortunately, while the revelers head out on haunted tours, have their fortunes told, or grab a drink at Brews and Broomsticks, a killer walks among them. When Charlene discovers Morganna, a local Wiccan, dead in her shop, she starts getting cozy with the local coven, looking for clues to locate the crafty culprit.

Charlene's parents are in town for Christmas, and her mother is driving her up a tree. Her bed-and-breakfast's resident ghost, Jack, isn't fond of her either - and he's showing it with some haunting high jinks. But when Charlene takes her mom and dad out for dinner, the less-than-seasonal spirits take a deadly turn.

Madison Boswell, a beauty recently transplanted from Boston, is starring in the Independence Day play in this New England town full of colonial history—and, of course, witchcraft. Madison may not be a Wiccan, but she does seem to have certain hypnotic powers. And she's left some angry people in her wake, from a fellow actress beaten out for a role to a jealous betrayed wife.

Charlene's bed and breakfast is fully booked with guests wanting to experience Salem's wildest holiday—especially the annual Witch Ball, held at the historic Hawthorne Hotel. At the dance, actual witch and winery owner Brandy Flint has her back up over her daughter Serenity's new beau—it's bad enough he's a decade older, he also claims to be a vampire from Romania.

Charlene has hired a van to ferry her B&B guests to an all-you-can-eat corned beef and cabbage dinner hosted by Salem's Irish community at the Ancient Order of Hibernians club—but she should have booked a hearse. It's never a good sign when the family black sheep drunkenly crashes a party by punching the guy dressed as a leprechaun. But things go from troublesome to fatal when Charlene stumbles upon a second brawl in an upper room—and this fight Connor Gallagher loses, his anonymous assailant rushing past Charlene, hidden by a hoodie.

Saturday night at the movies has some added flair now that Darren and Elise Shultz are reopening one of Salem's classic theaters. Charlene is delighted to help the couple with their venture, and Darren has lined up a cult classic double-header featuring Lon Chaney in The Wolfman. But things get hairier than expected when Elise starts to choke on her popcorn mid-movie-and once the lights go up, she's dead . . .