My download was the PDF (as manybooks offers format-by-choice, when available).

The Novice Ghost Hunter features Malachi, who is a young adult, poorest in the bunch of youngsters meeting Saturday nights. The crush he has on Anna, the gorgeous rich gal, leads into a surprising situation, as she asks him to investigate a haunted house on her behalf.

The PDF format wasn't flawless, but I know such from transforming my own texts into PDF. It happens that the original format gets jammed, or outright destroyed. Otherwise the author did not make any mistakes spoiling the readability.

The story flow is good, albeit not innovative or thrilling. It is a solid work, with the only notable point being the characters could be a bit more fleshed-out, as here the professionalism of the author streamlines it all, like an unwanted equalizer does on sounds.

The definition of Ghost Hunter is very cliche, but that cliche is served well, and fully understood by the author. Here you need TV trivia and folklore, not occult practice and shamanic counseling. ;-)

The work is the start of a series, and really not a bad one on that. Sadly it had no big bang, as I remember the movie 'Stir of Echoes' going for it. Such may be a matter of taste, so I vote it 4 stars.

NOTE: I tried 2 times: To me this download came, as a zero byte file (ending .epub), but the download was a failure (zero byte = zero content). Same result with PDF chosen. IF it is NOT due to the file being only available in other formats, then the link may be broken or the hosted file may be damaged. Just saying...

Dashiel Hammet delivers. Just as Humphrey Bogard could convince in the adaptation of the Maltese Falcon, or the original novel itself once did. One note i add: Hammet was not afraid of strong female characters. Any side of the law in that.

The ugly detective, seriously reminding me of myself in a way, is solid reading, starts a classic detective-noir style, and offers what I know as layers of deception to readers. From the start we get the kind of info, which we may know from having lived that life on the edge of legal meets illegal.

The characters are men and women of their time, and their mannerisms and personalities may be more timeless than some readers expect it to be.

The final was not exactly thrilling (to me, subjectively), but it was a pure crime fiction detective story. The so-called shades of grey, plenty of presented facades not being exactly true.

Technically: I read the .epub version in my ereader (ReadEra on chromebook, Icecream Reader on notebooks). It is not exactly well-formatted, and the English language has great fluctuation of grammar rules, making some of the older books a bit OFF, as the new rules any kid learns are absent. Being myself a moron on comma placement and grammar I did not care, but this is not the language of elite-university. To me it does not matter, I think this is a solid reading.

Given that I know my comfort zone is occult-detective NOT any #crimefiction I voted a bit higher (4 stars), as I knew I read outside my preferred kinda reading.

Enjoy!