神隠し三人娘 怪異名所巡り

Supernatural mystery series about Machida Ai, a young woman who starts working for a small, struggling bus tour company and encounters a variety of ghostly presences whilst on the job. Based on the premise I started this thinking it would be like Scooby-Doo or something, with Ai debunking these occurrences and unravelling the story beneath them, but it's actually made very clear early on that Ai does have an ability to see and communicate with ghosts which she then uses to solve crimes.

There's five self-contained mysteries within this first volume, so they are definitely short and sweet, and there's very little in the way of character development or backstory, so this may not appeal to people who like these kinds of things a little meatier. This does also gives the book a slightly odd tone, as the brisk pace and more whimsical premise feels a little out of sync with the content of the stories which are all full of murder, suicide, child abduction and the like.

Difficulty here is fairly low, perhaps about as easy as books aimed at adults get, so felt like maybe a L26-27 on here? The story is told in a very direct, straight-forward way with quite a limited vocabulary and restrained kanji usage, so I think this would make a good first novel for people not interested in LN or children's books, or just as a light read for more experienced readers.