Cozy Florida

Cozy Florida is spine-tinglingly thrilled to have Carol J. Perry as our spooktacular October guest.

Carol J. Perry lives on the West Coast of Florida where she’s situated her imaginary—and quite haunted—town of Haven.  She and husband Dan enjoy days on the water in their boat. They make an annual visit to Salem to keep the Witch City books current.

When Kensington, the publisher of my Witch City Mystery series, asked if I’d like to write some paranormal mysteries, I was delighted. Paranormal, to me, hints of ghosts—from the wispy, shimmery, see-through kind– to the noisy, dish-throwing kind—to the solid-looking OMG full manifestation kind. Be My Ghost, the first book in the new Haunted Haven series, gave me the opportunity to bring some imaginary ghosts to temporary book life. Be My Ghost is a Halloween story where the action happens in a made-up Florida town I call Haven.

Readers may recognize bits and pieces of Florida small cities and towns—Gulfport, Sanford, Fernandina Beach, Safety Harbor, Cedar Key–places the theme parks and major highways passed by. The story involves a haunted hotel. Every book involves research, so in this case, I studied “Haunted Florida Hotels.” What a surprise—there are lots of cool haunts in the Sunshine State.

Would you like to spend Halloween in St. Augustine? Try the Casa Monica Hotel where late at night a roomful of ghosts in jazz-age attire waltz gracefully in the lobby. In St. Petersburg, The Hotel Indigo is home to a little girl ghost who plays and skips around on a third-floor landing. She’s known to have once followed a guest home! Down in Key West at Marrero’s Guest Mansion, visitors report a beautiful woman brushing her hair in the mirror. Some say they smell her lavender perfume. The Seven Sisters Inn in Ocala advertises the property as “the most haunted bed and breakfast in Florida.” Guests and employees report seeing ghosts quite regularly. It’s said to be haunted by the original owners and their three kids, a flirtatious spirit called George, along with a small figure that steals shoes.

Maybe on your next vacation, you’ll visit one of Florida’s delightfully scary places—spend the night where doors open and close on their own—or where ghostly dancers waltz. Meanwhile, I hope you’ll visit the pages of Be My Ghost and meet the spirits who stay at Haven House Inn. Say hello to Lorna DuBois, a long-deceased movie starlet who only appears in black-and-white, or listen while the ghostly hands of Billy-be-Doggoned Baily pound out the oldies on the player piano in the dining room. You might even meet Babe Ruth, who sometimes shows up when the Yankees play the Rays!

We at Cozy Florida are very excited for the Haunted Haven series.

We love cozy mysteries set in Florida!