Murder at the Spirit Lounge

By Jess Kidd
** Publication Date 16 June 2026 **
​4 stars




I wholeheartedly enjoyed the latest installment of the Nora Breen series. Former nun turned detective is back with yet another case from her boarding house at Gull’s Nest on the seaside in England. While this is the second in the series, there is no reason it cannot be read as a standalone. Enough background knowledge is given to keep one understanding Nora.


Nora is joined by her friend and true police detective, Rideout, and his trusty constable, Griggs.
Nora is summoned to the Spirit Lounge to assist a medium who has met her untimely end during a seance. Nora, having been a nurse, is the closest available medical person to help the remaining seance sitters. 


Over the course of time, another seance sitter will also be found dead, which now makes this a serial killer investigation, assuming that the murders are linked. The town gossip says that the medium raised a malevolent spirit bent on getting revenge. Nora doesn’t buy this for a moment. She is bound and determined to solve this crime spree before her dear friend Rideout, one of the seance sitters, becomes the next victim.


Witty, charming, and definitely mysterious, this book is fun as can be. Nora is the least likely detective ever, but she’s so good at it. We get a little sniff of romance for Nora in this one. There is also more focus on the second World War’s victims and survivors. This is historical fiction and mystery wrapped up in one. Jess Kidd does a great job of setting us in the 1940s in a small English town. Nora overstepping her expected role. Nora is a character for someone who once was a nun. 


If you enjoyed number one, you will love number two. If you want, you can just read this one. But Nora is such fun, I think you should start with Murder at Gull’s Nest and then move on to this. Fairly fast read.