In High Spirits by Kate O'Hare is the final book of the O'Hare House Mysteries! Oh how exciting this journey has been, strange, but exciting nonetheless. This was a satisfying ending to a long journey. Somewhat. It is with this volume, however, that most of the questions that have been plaguing my mind were resolved.
We start off with Wesley being carted away by the coppers! He has been accused of murdering Lady Rhoda Beltza amongst other crimes. Clara is then forced to act without her usual partner and takes things into her own hands...
(SPOILER WARNING! START)
As soon as Wesley is taken away, Clara goes to Marguerite to inform her of the situation, who then takes the reins and the both of them head to the prison to try and see Wesley. Unfortunately, Wesley is in solitary confinement for spouting nonsense about Egyptian curses and whatnot, also for being a danger to himself. The higher ups are thinking about sending him to the asylum, a fate much worse than death many say.
Marguerite figures that it is Trevor Beltza who is behind this and suggests Clara not to leave her home alone, fearing for her life. Soon enough, Trevor visits Clara in her own home, trying to get her to find the money her husband stole from his family, threatening Wesley's life. Things take a turn for the worst when she can't find the money, instead, finding an emerald with the powers to control the dead! Thomas had used the money to buy such a gem, for what? Clara has no idea.
Clara then runs to the police station to try and find Marguerite, telling the officer at the desk that someone is trying to kill one of the prisoners. He writes her off and she is left waiting only for Marguerite to come to the station stating that she had been looking for Clara and that the prison was on fire! The officer at the desk got scolding from Marguerite for sure.
The two ladies head to the prison, only to find out Wesley wasn't one of the cells that was released before the prison was set ablaze. Clara is absolutely distraught and is taken home by Red and Marguerite. Later that same night, Clara finds Wesley well and alive in her living room! Apparently, Minnie helped him escape before the fire happened.
Soon enough, Trevor comes back and gloats a bit about what he has done, still demanding the money, but Clara insists she has no idea where the money has gone. He tries to force her hand, threatening Lady Daphne Grey's life, but she tells him that he killed the one person she cared about. Clara states to him that he can kill her, for she doesn't know where the money is and the house ends up repelling him, throwing him out!
Afterwards, after some sleuthing by Clara and Red, they find out where the Quatre Portes headquarters is and go undercover, finding out the motives of this strange cult, to gain the ability to speak to dead loved ones and to gain immortality. Also, it was announced that Peter Nero had returned! The man who was missing since before the start of the series! They head home and once home, Clara almost dies! Her heart almost gave out in the same fashion as Thomas and the late Lord Alastair Beltza. She is soon saved however, with a similar scarab that appeared in the second volume, that she had received from Dr. Van Flemming several days ago. Clara gives Red, Wesley, and Marguerite one each, to protect them.
Next, Red ends up being kidnapped by a terrifying spectre that had been scoping the house. They end up receiving a ransom letter to try and get Red back. The three of them head to the meeting point, a big mausoleum fashioned to look like an Egyptian tomb. They have a plan that doesn't exactly pan out how they had hoped and find out that Peter Nero wasn't the maestro commanding the orchestra after all! It was really Trevor pulling all the strings, killing Thomas and his father and such! All in all, Trevor is defeated due to the emerald Thomas left for Clara and everyone makes it out alive, including Peter Nero who isn't actually a bad guy, as the tomb collapses in on itself. Peter confesses to many things: asking Thomas to buy the emerald, swindling the funds, building the tomb to stop the curse that was defeated two books ago without his knowledge, and being the anonymous benefactor paying for all of Clara's living expenses. He then goes and disappears, to try and do something with the other artifacts.
In the end, everyone lives and Clara decides to go into business with Wesley to pay the bills and Wesley proposes! Marguerite also hires Red for her department and suggests that she might have some use for Clara and Wesley as paranormal consultants...
(SPOILER WARNING! END)
And that is all there is to it. I kind of wish there was more to the story because I still have some questions left despite this being the end. What happened to Lady Daphne Grey? Is she dead? How did Marguerite's husband get roped into all of this? And so many more questions but they are kind of spoiler-y so I'm going to just keep them to myself.
All in all, this series wasn't a bad read to be quite honest with you. It probably would've been better formatted as a single standalone novel instead of four individual novels, but that's a personal opinion there. I recommend this series to those who like paranormal themed books, not so much if you like mysteries. Even though this classifies as a mystery book, it's not so much mystery as it is a paranormal romance. And even then that's a bit of a stretch as it is more paranormal than romance.
I do kind of wish there was more in the series, considering how things ended. I want to know what Clara and Wesley do next, their cases and such, but I don't think there will be anymore, which is a shame.
Thank you all for reading this far! I hope you have been enjoying my ramblings as much as I like to talk about books. Comment below and tell me what book I should read and review next! Also, have you picked up this series? How do you feel about it? I think it was a pretty mediocre story with average characters, nothing too spectacular. Please come back next week to read what I talk about next! See you!
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