Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Second Grave on the Left-Darynda Jones

Second Grave on the Left
Darynda Jones
St. Martin’s, Aug 16 2011, $22.99
ISBN: 9780312360818

Although he knows the potential consequence of awakening his BFF is a severe butt kicking, Cookie wakes up grim reaper private investigator Charley Davidson. He is upset because his friend Mimi Jacobs vanished without a trace so he pleads with Charley to find out what happened to her. After a few growls, Charley investigates only to quickly learn that several of Mimi’s former high school classmates have recently died.

At the same time Charley works the Mimi case, her frequent protector (though she insists he is a pain in the butt stalker) Reyes “Son of Satan” Farrow informs his sometimes lover from the astral plane that he is leaving his body behind to die at the hands of demons who want to use him to get to her. Charley thinks his suicide scheme is stupid and besides she needs his body to give her the best sex in town as she is not into corpses. She searches for where he concealed his corporal form before the demons get to it.

The second Charley Davidson paranormal private investigator (see First Grave on the Right) is a hilarious yet tense urban fantasy as the heroine works two missing persons’ cases in which she fears both will end when she finds the respective dead body. The jocular story line is fast-paced from the onset, but it is the three dimensional cast (including the dead and the astral) especially Charley who makes for a fun butt kicking thriller.

Harriet Klausner

No comments: