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First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones |
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| (St. Martin's Press, $21.99, NV) ISBN 978-0-312-66275-2 | |
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| Twenty-seven year old Charley Davidson is a private investigator and brings a very unusual talent to her practice: she is a grim reaper. That is, someone who helps those recently departed pass to the other side. In cases where the dead have been murdered, Charley can often offer them assistance in finding closure to their deaths. This skill is very handy, making her an assistant to her uncle, a detective with the Albuquerque Police Department.
Her current clients, however, are three lawyers who were all shot in the back of the head and are unable to assist her in the investigation. As Charley works with the dead, and the living, she knows many things aren't as they seem, and that good usually wins out over evil. Charley is a smart aleck and her sarcasm takes some getting used to, but the tone fits the novel perfectly. The solution to the murder of the three lawyers is fairly complex and requires some thought on Charley's part as she slowly pieces things together, finding un expected links to a previous murder. Charley has a hard time sleeping as a dark, erotic stranger invades her dreams, and then her awake time, involving her in some very sexy encounters. Charley is puzzled, though, because she believes this phantom lover to be Reyes Farrow who is not only a convicted criminal, but lies in the state penitentiary in a coma.
Paranormal fans will welcome this new, sassy voice to the genre with a heroine who has one foot firmly planted in the here and now and one in the hereafter.
--Jennifer Monahan Winberry |
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