After tracking down the missing sister of her former partner Audrey, and helping to put an end to a monstrous being’s reign of terror, one would think they’d find Prudence Osgood riding high. Instead, they couldn’t find her at all.

A year and change after the events of Osgood as Gone, our titular hero has returned. Osgood is confused, exhausted, and dragging along more quirks than she ever remembers having. Her friends Zack and Audrey, the makeshift Spectral Inspector crew in her absence, don’t quickly believe that things are back to normal, but have to admit that no one is quite as grumpy and belligerent as “their Osgood.”

Unfortunately for all involved, something has hitched a ride back from the space between worlds, and not even Osgood can guess what its plans are. She will need to stand with her friends against a monstrous emergent evil, and it will take everything the Spectral Inspectors have to stop what’s coming once the events are set in motion.

Osgood as Gone was a book that sounded so far up my street last year, and it 100% delivered on that promise. It was fun & creepy & queer AF, with a broken protagonist skilled in the art of self-loathing. It combined elements of horror & urban fantasy, and definitely gave off some great Buffy & the Scoobies vibes, which I am always here for!!

Cooper S. Beckett has followed up with Osgood Riddance, the second book in his Spectral Inspector series, and it’s a fucking wild ride, start to finish. This is very much a direct sequel, which kinda surprised me a little. I think subconsciously, I was expecting something more like a Monster of the Week (to borrow a phrase from The X-Files) format to this series, but Osgood Riddance is essentially the fallout from All The Bad Shit that went down in Osgood as Gone.

Which of course, if you haven’t read Osgood as Gone, you might want to bail now.

So, after the pretty cliff-hangery ending of Osgood as Gone, we were left, like…hanging. Badly.

Osgood Riddance picks things up over a year later, with Osgood returning to this plane of existence, with a lot more questions than answers. Zack & Audrey have carried on in Osgood’s absence, growing the business & the podcast, and also setting up more of a Spectral Inspector HQ in Osgood’s apartment. So there’s a…period of adjustment for Osgood, and she handles it exactly like you’d think she would: By kinda lashing out at the people who love her most, and then feeling shitty about it.

And also, there are some lasting physical issues that Osgood is now dealing with, added on top of her chronic pain. So that just sucks. And these lasting physical problems may turn out to be, you know, evil & weird & icky & yeah…gross body horror ensues.

Goddamn, there’s just something about what Beckett is doing with this series that I completely adore. He also recently posted about some movement on a Spectral Inspector TV show, so I will keep my fingers & toes crossed that it happens! These books are so wonderfully balanced…it’s just the right amount of campiness & weird fiction/horror elements, but also super focused on the characters and the evolving relationships between them. There are some delightfully cringy scenes with Osgood & Zack that just cracked me up. And we also get to see some interaction with Osgood & her parents, two relationships that have had a clear & lasting impact on her life.

And as with the first book, the relationship between Osgood & Audrey is the heart and soul of the book, and they are just…oof. Complicated. And lovely.

But complicated.

Endless thanks to Cooper S. Beckett for sending me a copy of Osgood Riddance! The Spectral Inspector series is shaping up to be something really special, and I’m glad to have gotten the opportunity to read & review the first two books!