Alastair Mabbott

Doug Johnstone’s Ghost Notes, the seventh Skelf novel, follows a family of Edinburgh undertakers who also work as private detectives. Its central plot concerns an AI app that recreates dead people and begins urging grieving users to join them in the afterlife, prompting Dorothy Skelf to investigate the company behind it. Parallel storylines involve Jenny investigating blackmail and murders, while Hannah confronts disturbing revelations about her wife Indy’s past. Although the alternating plots can feel disjointed, the review praises the distinct personalities of the Skelf women, the supportive family dynamic and the novel’s accessibility to new readers.