Murder in Pink, Rodney Strong

MURDER IN PINK is the fourth book in the Hitchhiker series featuring Oliver Atkinson, his family, and his ... hangers on. Basically Oliver is an unwilling house husband, and amateur investigator who is "aided" by witnesses or involved parties, who inhabit his being. Ghosts with opinions and justice on their minds. Heftily on the cosy side, this series has a number of elements to it that readers will just have to love or hate - the sense of humour, the self-deprecation of the central character, his put-upon demeanour, to say nothing of the whole idea of "ghost witnesses" who hitch a ride in Oliver's head for the purposes of solving a current day crime.

In this fourth book, Oliver is planning his fortieth birthday party when he meets a young woman, about to embark on a charity run. When her boyfriend is found murdered, she becomes the prime suspect, despite the insistence of young Charlie Morningside, that his distant relative is definitely innocent. The fact that Charlie's been dead since 1921 probably makes him an unreliable witness in everyone's eyes except Oliver, and then there's the involvement of Amanda, the con woman seemingly dedicated to turning Oliver's life into a bit more of a train wreck than it already was.

You should be getting the picture from that description, and whilst this is definitely an outing that could be read as a bit of a standalone, (let's face it, you're going to be wondering what on earth (or not) is going on anyway) without too much backstory, it's also a series that fans of the comic cosy subgenre would do well to start from the beginning.