No cape, lol, but you nailed the rest. Hmmm, my immediate two choices are probably books you've already read or, at the very least, heard about.
Ghost Story by Peter Straub and
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I liked them both. I'd need to know a little more about your reading tastes/sensibilities but here are some mysteries you may want to try.
1.)
Them Bones by Carolyn Haines (Book one in a series about a failing actress who returns to Mississippi to save her ancestral home which happens to be haunted by a ghost named Jitty. The African American ghost has resided in her home for generations and has become the protagonist's conscience, in a way. Try this only if you enjoy a humorous turn in an otherwise Southern Gothic.)
2.)
The Devil's Hearth by Philip DePoy (Here's another modern day Southern Gothic with plenty of folklore, oddities, and Shakespeare references.
Fever Develin is the young, white-haired protagonist that lives alone in the Appalachian hills of Georgia and he's haunted by his past and, with the help of his childhood pal Skidmore (now Sheriff), he solves mysteries. The whole series is an engrossing, literary banquet of characters and spooks.
Lighter than Elizabeth George but as substantial as one could ask for in a mystery genre.)
3.)
Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz (If you haven't read it, trust me. It's neither time-travel nor ghost story but it's very atmospheric and somehow the shoe fits. Gripping read.)
Hopefully, this is a beginning and there's a winning match in the bunch.
