Summoned to the Thirteenth Grave (Charley Davidson #13) by Darynda Jones

Charley Davidson has been freed from the dimension she was trapped in… but only to find the real world is under a new threat: a hell dimension is spreading over the city… perhaps the world

A Hell dimension unleashed by Charley and Reyes… and only answering the hidden question of what happened to Charley’s mother may help them save the world and their daughter..

This is the final chapter in the story of Charley Davidson…. Which means I always am going to be quite bleak about all this. I am never happy about a series ending, especially not a series I’ve come to love. I will always be grumpy about this.

And that means I need to do an obligatory bias check - it’s ending and I am unhappy and I hates it I hates it I hates it!

But I do have some issues beyond my utter unwillingness to say goodbye

As I’ve said with this series, the balance of zaniness is a little off kilter. I always liked Charley and her silly habit of naming things (like her breasts: Danger and Will Robinson, or her car, Misery) but then she took it too far and started naming all the things. We still had the humour but it started trying too hard to be silly. This book we pulled that back a lot and got a lot more serious… perhaps even too serious. But it was focused on the plot… but lost some fun along the way

That plot is something I’m torn over. Like previous books towards the latter half of this series there’s a weird split between EPIC WORLD DESTROYING MASSIVENESS with gods and angels and demons and Charley being this incredible epic thing beyond comprehension with massive stakes beyond knowing while also being super super fun…. And then there’s a fairly mundane crime drama. And it feels… odd? Especially because in this book it feels especially strong because while we’re talking about the whole world ending in the not very distant future, neither Charley nor Reyes seem to make this a priority? I think part of this is the way it pans out: this shadowy hell dimension is consuming the city and will expand to consume the world with a side order of dangerous violent possessions. But Charley gets a rather dubious cryptic advice that she basically has to find out something from her past to get the answer. There’s no obvious connection so while the world is ending it feels like Charley is involved in something completely unrelated. While we have a much more focused and excellent classic Charley Davidson storyline of finding some missing people and using magic and investigative shenanigans to great effect - with the added bonus of Charley’s development with her new thread of ruthlessness. It was a great storyline which totally eclipsed the world ending and the actual finale of the series.

The Trouble with the Twelfth Grave (Charley Davidson #12) by Darynda Jones

Charley has a problem. Reyes, her demonic, powerful, godly husband has finally been released from the supernatural prison he’d been locked in. But what emerged was far less human and far more supernatural and demonic than what went in. She has no idea what drives him now - and fears that ending the world and everything in it may be on his to do list

Fearing the same, it looks like God and his angels want to get pro-active in exterminating him

Trying to return Reyes to humanity is beyond tricky - especially when she’s distracted by a series of odd murders: people killed by fire and claws but no indication of to how. It looks like woowoo so of course she’s called in

Charley continues to be the utterly zany, completely unbelievable character we all know and love. She’s hilarious, she’s random, she doesn’t even remotely approach sensible on even her best day and it generally works. I think it especially works in this book - in previous books there have been moments where I think Charley, her randomness, her need to name everything etc have been taken to degrees that are not just ridiculous (everything with Charley involves ridiculousness, it is known) but also to a level which is just not funny any more.

This book managed to keep all the amusing quips, Charley’s complete lack of anything resembling an attention span, her love of Mexican food and coffee to levels which are completely inhuman, and her inability to take even the most severe moment seriously and still manages to keep it coherent

I think part of the way it manages this is Charley’s grown. I’m looking back through my list of quotes and I can’t put my finger on any one moment that I can point to as an example. But there is a definite different feel to Charley. She has always been the silly, irreverent, fun driven protagonist - but in the last few books she and the story has taken a distinctive turn. She’s a god, she’s not just a god but an extremely powerful god. She knows this - and while she doesn’t lord it over anyone or even use her extensive powers a great deal, there’s a new solidity to her. Previously she would charge into dangerous situations because she was just that reckless or because she felt there was no other choice or she didn’t think things through. Now there’s a sense of “I’ve got this” about her - there’s a confidence to her that wasn’t there before. I still can’t say how it’s conveyed, but it’s definitely there

What helps this book a lot is the much more coherent plot lines. While we have Amber involved in her own background activity and a police case, and a crime family with a grudge against Peri, one of her best friends, ultimately nearly everything is connected. In previous books there felt like there were maybe 3 or 4 plot lines, none of which were going anywhere, none of which were actually achieving anything and all would end when the book did. They were fun, but they were too many and they felt like distractions. Here we had the quest to find Reyes and the plan to try and get him back on side, we had the murders (because we always have murder mysteries) which are still connected to the Reyes hunt and we had Peri, her relationship issue and the dangerous crime family. This wasn’t connected to the others but also had enough threads to suggest a longer term plot than we’ve already seen, it certainly didn’t feel over when the book was over, exactly. This coherence of storyline may have helped focus Charlie a lot more, especially as it also allowed more time to examine what Charlie actually is

Eleventh Grave in Moonlight (Charley Davidson #11) by Darynda Jones

Charley Davidson is far more than a private investigator – which is good because she doesn’t always make a lot of money at that what with the breaking things

Of course she has a lot on her mind – including the angels stalking her every move after she kind of threatened Jehova with taking over. Then there’s that other demon god who is definitely trying to hun

And all this is before Charley truly figures herself out – hard enough for most people (especially people as… quirky as Charley) but for the god-eater, the most powerful deity out there prophecised to do so many things, enemy of god and devil both? That’s a lot for anyone to digest.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again and again, this book series is just fun. Especially Charley. She’s just so quirky, so funny and so utterly incapable of taking anything seriously. I love her little tangents. I love how easily distracted she is. I love her little asides, her silly maunderings and the general joy she manages to have all the time. I like the funny. I like that we have a protagonist who is still joyful even in the face of a lot of grim happening.

And you get lines like:

“We stood as the judge came into the room, much like one would when a kling enteed, or the president, or a male stripper when the women in front of you are really tall.”

Or her random tangents about prada.

Sometimes it is stretched a little much. Like her naming her furnishings and car is funny. Her naming everything she comes across no matter how tangentially is ridiculous. Tone it back a little

I do love the slowly developing metaplot in all its weird shininess. The originality of the gods, the different dimensions Charley’s extra special part within that is so different from anything I’ve read. The epic powers are there, but don’t divert from the general lightness and humour of the series. I like the both fear and joy of seeing Charley Davidson having more power than god while also being both genuinely good and caring while also having the attention span of a concussed squirrel.

The Curse of the Tenth Grave (Charley Davidson #10) by Darynda Jones

Charley has a secret. And it’s a doozey. She knows what Reyes really is, how he was created – and she has no idea if this revelation means she can’t properly trust him, certainly not in protecting their daughter, Beep

It’s only made worse by the distance that seems to be growing between them.

Of course she can never focus on one thing – she has a homeless girl facing a curse, a prosecutor who doesn’t like her very much who wants her to prove a guy innocent and her supernatural exploits appear to have gone viral on the web.

I believe this book to be something of transition book. And that’s not a bad thing. In the last few books the meta of the Charley Davidson series has morphed into something incredibly huge and overwhelming. This seems ironic for me to say after several books of saying “more meta! More meta!” but the last few books we’ve had the birth of Beep and her godly future, the revelation of Charley and what she is, the revelation of Reyes and what he is, the introduction of many characters and concepts. We’ve had gods and dimensions and ALL THE THINGS. So much, so very very very much.

So having a book where the meta is largely confined to the end helps us get back to Charley and her relationships and her standard zany shenanigans to help pull back from the meta. Don’t get me wrong, I love the meta and the epic but I also really really love Charley’s silliness. I love the fun of his series. I love the humour. I love Danger and Will Robinson. I love every single conversation she has with Cookie. I love her superlative irrelevance

Yes, that’s not interspaced with reminders that she is uber powerful and even epic moments where she does things like challenge the Archange Michael to his face because she is DONE with his shit AND his boss. The combination works. It really really works and it’s fun and hilarious and awesome. I love this series, I will always pick up another book in this series with utter glee

Of course there are problems – including the habit of these books including ALL THE THINGS. So many storylines in one book! But this works more in this book because the meta has been largely pushed to the end of the book and the many storylines are more of the point. This is a shenanigans book, so bring on the shenanigan

Brighter than the Sun (Charley Davidson 8.5) by Darynda Jones

We’ve seen Charley Davidson’s story continue through the books – now we look again at these events, but from Reyes’s point of view.

This is a book that largely recaps a lot of what has been spoken about and touched upon in the main series. Often I’m not a fan of that when it comes to short stories – or long stories for that matter. Retreading old ground too often feels like some kind of broken money-grab, leaching a book out of a series when it doesn’t really have an original book there. It has to bring something new to the proceedings, to the series – it has to bring a perspective that is actually useful and novel

The perspective this book brings is Reyes point of view

The actual events of the book are ones we’ve seen before. We know Reyes’s history – we know he was repeatedly abused by Earl, we know he was controlled by threats to his sister. Everything he endured is something we knew about. But seeing it from Reyes point of view helped explain a bit more about him, especially since he’s always been the awesomely powerful one Charley has turned to

Here we see what she brought to him – he isn’t just her protector (and frequently abusive controller). He relied on her on her light and on her presence to get him through the dark times.

It also brings some insight into him and his views. He’s always been ridiculously, impossibly beautiful in a way that is full of annoying Paranormal Romance tropes of the incredible love interest who just can’t be resisted. Well here’s the dark side – here’s Reyes, ab to sense people’s emotions and always feeling that endless, hungry all consuming lust. It’s a burden on him, a constant attack on him, a pressure that always drives him down. From there his appearance is never an asset to him, but a source of constant pain. A source of him hardly ever being able to have real relationships with most people.

This is also coupled with his knowledge of who he is and what he does and the inherent conclusion that he is damned, tainted and awful. Which, of course, he is in a way – he was created entirely to help the invasion of Earth and Heaven, he was created to co-opt Charley, her mission and her power.

The Dirt on Ninth Grave (Charley Davidson #9) by Darynda Jones

Charley has lost all of her memories, faced with the horror of losing Beep, she’s forgotten all she is and teleported across the country

She’s now lost and adrift, a waitress in a strange place without even knowing her own name. She tries to keep her small life together, as more figures from her old life arrive trying, hoping her memory will return

Of course, she’s still Charley so, despite all intentions, there’s no way she can stay out of trouble for long

At the end of the last book, I was worried. I was worried because the story ended with Charley having complete amnesia and being magically whizzed to an entirely different part of America

I feared that this would mean a whole book with Charley not remembering who she was and what she could do.

I feared this meant that 8 books of slow revelations, character development, relationship development and expansion and exploration of Charley’s nature and her powers were going to be completely erased. I wasn’t happy at the possibility.

And lo… I was right.

Charley has amnesia. She has no idea who or what she is. She spends most of this book relearning how to use her abilities, what her abilities mean, how she can see the dead, how she can allow the dead pass through her, how she can speak every language

Huge amounts of this book is Charley relearning what it is to be Charley.

Thankfully her friends and family don’t spend a long time finding her. But nor do they tell her the truth or try to. There is something of a reason for that but it’s still frustrating as we see her redevelop all her old relationships, rebuild connections with Uncle Bob and Cookie and Reyes and Garrett and and Agent Kit Carson and everyone else. It feels like we’re leaping backwards – it’s so very frustrating since it has taken a long time for us to get where we are now. Eight books worth, eight books and we’re going back to book 1

She’s even forgotten Danger and Will Robinson.

Eighth Grave After Dark (Charley Davidson #8) by Darynda Jones

Charley is heavily pregnant and ready to give birth any day now to Beep, the prophesised daughter who will save the world. Until then she has to hide in their new home on hallowed ground so the 12 Hellhounds don’t find her and kill her

Confining Charley is… an interesting experience for everyone. Especially since Reyes is definitely up to something in the name of her protection

Not that she’s bored in her hideout. She has weddings to arrange, a case to solve, an evil stepmother who keeps visiting and a whole lot of prophecies to make sense of

Take a deep breath for this book – because this is when it all happens

This is when we finally delve into truly what Charley is – as we’ve been threatening and nearly achieved in the last book. Here Charley is finally approaching her full power, she’s mighty, she’s strong, she’s terrifying. She’s also pregnant and finally giving birth to the much anticipated Beep, revealing the truth to many of the prophecies they’ve been agonising over for so long. We even have an appearance of the ultra-big-bad, Reyes’s dad, Satan himself. We even, finally, get an explanation for Mr. Wong.

In short, a lot of the storylines which have been brewing pretty much since the first book all come to fruition. On top of that we have ongoing stories of Charley and her much hated step-mother kind of had some kind of rapprochement and her murdered dad’s ghost drops in to be cryptic about something involving the Vatican. Oh and Cookie got married. There’s also

Then we have an actual case from Special Agent Kit and her friend who want to recruit Charley despite her inability to leave her new monastery home because of the 12 hellhounds. On top of that there’s also a ghostly nun with a story to tell as well.

Or, to put it another way –ye gods there’s a lot happening in this book! Honestly, there’s perhaps a bit too much happening in this book. So many plot lines, some of the could really have waited to the next book while we digest the vastness of the prophecy and what Charley is and the amazing new directions and revelations of this book (though, honestly, I think the whole revelation about the twelve is… contrived and unlikely and smells a lot like a retcon).

Seventh Grave and No Body (Charley Davidson #7) by Darynda Jones

Charley is facing pregnancy, ominous prophecy and 12 lethal hell hounds hunting her down which are seemingly utterly unkillable

She has also given up coffee. The horror!

After that she also has to deal with her ongoing complex relationship with Reyes, her missing father, a serial killer who is hiding their murders as suicides and a grave robber.

First thing I really like about this book – Charley is finally starting to realise her potential.

Oh, every now and then she has managed to throw out a cool shiny super power without being able to replicate it or quite knowing what she is doing. And Reyes repeatedly said something about how super awesomely powerful she was because awesome and special and awesome. But we didn’t really see it. Ultimately, Reyes was the powerful one barring her odd one-off moments. Reyes was the menacing big scary son-of-lucifer who repeatedly had to come to her rescue and often tried to lock her up/imprison her “for her own good” and to “keep her safe.” This annoying practice was only exacerbated by his habit of making decisions to force their relationship onwards despite her objections and generally being an arrogant patronising arsehole to her.

This book finally had Charley change that which still maintaining balance– managing to give her massive, conscious power without making her a terrible Mary Sue or breaking the story or making any opposition insignificant. And not only is Charley now consciously wielding her awesome powers, saving the others (who nobly and powerfully get badly mailed while she uses super powers – yes, for once we have a book where Charley isn’t the one who gets super mauled) and being the super weapon that saves the day – but she’s also using them against Reyes

Yes, it is acknowledged that Charley can not only bring down Reyes (and Osh), but that she can do it easily. She can drop him. She can do it easily. Not only can she do it, but she is willing to do it and does do it. When he does his endless “I’m going to force you to do this” posturing she now, finally, turns it round and points out how hollow it is. He no longer has any real power to imprison her (since she can walk through the actual chains he uses to control her, yes, actual chains) and no realistic power to stop her. This subverts the entire series to date, an entire series of Reyes’ dominance and, yes, that is amazing and long past time.

Sixth Grave on the Edge (Charley Davidson #6) by Darynda Jones

Charley and Reyes are moving closer – he’s even proposed to her, but there are still some obstacles getting in the way. She keeps trying to dig up his past despite his protests and he can’t keep standing by and watching her put her life in danger

A habit she continues when she gets involved with both a soul trading demon and a major organised crime cartel. Neither bring the people who love her peace of mind. And these are just the major challenges, the ongoing chaos of her life continues with commitments and adventures everywhere.

I am happy to be able to praise the immense fun of this book again. I think the last couple of books just got a little too extreme and pushed the zaniness a bit too far. It felt contrived and silly and destroyed a lot of the fun.

This book toned it down and worked a lot better with it. Charley and Cookie are back to being their extremely fun and freaky selves. They continue to bounce off each other excellently and Charley’s endlessly distracted asides are hilarious. Charley is just so much incredible fun even if I would completely understand if everyone around her would merrily strangle her in a minute. I can’t really think of a book series or a protagonist that is this consistently hilariously fun.

One downside of Charley being so hilariously, randomly, zanily fun is that it makes it hard to fully accept the fact that Charley is living with a lot of trauma. She has night terrors, she has anxiety, she has flashbacks. She’s actually an excellent example of a character who is dealing with PTSD after what she has suffered. And, in some ways, the zaniness does work with that- because having PTSD doesn’t mean you ca  never have fun or never enjoy life or never find anything funny again – I like the idea of presenting a character with a mental illness who doesn’t just BECOME that mental illness. But the overwhelming light funness of the story just turns her symptoms into another punch line.

The fun of Charley and her random nonsense makes this book. It made me enjoy it for start to finish, which, I have to say, is kind of more than what the plot line did. I’m not saying the plot was bad (and anything that let me enjoy more of Charley’s zany fun is a good thing), but there were too many plot lines and plot-ettes.

We have some minor mysteries, like what exactly the nature of the ghost in her living room is and we have Angel’s (the ghost who kind of works for her) family and we have the ghost that has taken up residence in her car. We have a deeply traumatised ghost and Charley trying to deal with that and the people who hurt her and were equally traumatised. All of these are nice little moments that ensure the daily life of Charley continues even when she’s involved in a mystery. But then we have the saga of getting Cookie and Uncle Bob together (which is elaborate and convoluted because it was one of Charley’s ideas so of course it is). Then we have the FBI agent and the historical case she wants Charley to look into which is also connected to Reyes. Then we have something going on with Charley’s dad and stepmother.

Tragic Love Interests: Tortured Pasts and Abusive True Loves

Author: Dennis Skley  Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs License

What makes for a really hot male love interest?

If we’re feeling restrained we would mentioned kindness, compassion, understanding, willingness to listen, patience.

If we’re less… high brow… we’d mention bulging muscles, smoldering eyes, a firm backside and a massive… personality. (Though I still think some of these men have “personalities” that can rupture internal organs, which is sexy apparently. But we’ve already looked at the bizarre things that are considered sexy).

But there’s one other trait that seems to be even more required for your hot love interest to truly make everyone’s knees buckle: a horrendous tormented past

Yes, nothing makes your hot guy truly smoking like knowing he is dealing with some terrible trauma. Knowing your man is fighting off desperate PTSD symptoms seems to really get people going.

Of course part of this just an extension of the same writing habit that kills off the parents of protagonists at a truly alarming rate. A traumatic past is quick and dirty characterisation. When you’ve created a walking penis carrier who you don’t especially want to define nothing allows for quick and dirty characterisation like a huge whack of angst. Instant characterisation, life goal and general motivation and attitude in once, nice, tear-stained package.

Traumatic backgrounds are not inherently a bad thing (though there are many issues with a traumatic background being slightly more common than completing high school in the genre) if it’s done well (and not just lazy characterisation) and it’s certainly good to explore issues like PTSD, triggers and other manifestations of trauma as well as careful well written road to healing. Unfortunately, we rarely see this - and especially not with the sexily brooding love interest. Instead, all too often their oh-so-sad lives are used as a reason for them to be arseholes - and even abusive.

And because they have a tragic past we’re expected to accept that - or even find it romantic.

At the mildest level, your super sexy guy with his oh-so-special personality is (or believes he is) cursed/tortured/hunted/just-too-tortured and simply is bad for the girl (who he loves beyond reason, of course). This inevitably leads to that common and aggravating trope - driving her away for her own good! Of course, the idea of actually letting a woman decide whether she wants to take a risk or plan her own life or decide what is actually good for her or not. That would involve respecting her decision making.

Fourth Grave Beneath My Feet (Charley Davidson #4) by Darynda Jones

Charley, the zany, reckless grim reaper is hurting. After being kidnapped and tortured last book, she is not doing well and the trauma has prevented her leaving her apartment in weeks. She has ongoing conflicts with both Reyes and her father for the terrible way they’ve both treated her – she’s at one of her lowest points

She still has good friends to help and support her but what really drags her out of her secure home is a new case; a young woman has been stalked and tormented for years and Charley cannot sit back and let it continue, forcing her to confront her own issues in the process

And issues inevitably lead to Reyes, the son of Satan whose plots led to Charley being tortured in the first place.

In the last book, Charley was badly traumatised after being captured and tortured. One of the things that had characterised Charlie until this point is that she’s pretty much fearless to the point of reckless. She plunges her way into any situation with the merry confidence that she will get out the other side unscathed (which makes sense given her Reaper nature) all the while making witticisms and snark.

And now that little bubble is gone. She isn’t fearless any more. She has night terrors, she has agoraphobia, she panics easily and she is hording things, filling her apartment with things she’s buying trying to reassert control. She covers the stain caused by her torture with boxes and cannot stand to have it touched. It’s a really good depiction and also contrasts well with another character also suffering PTSD as part of the case Charley is investigating. What I really like there is that their symptoms are quite different which really shows how two people with the same condition can manifest them in very different ways

It is difficult to have a character deal with something as severe as Charley did and still respectfully deal with the aftermath of that while at the same time maintain the hallmark lightness and fun that really makes this series a joy to read. And I have to say it does actually manage it without clashing. We have a lot of light and fun depictions of the underlying pain in Charley’s life. So Cookie will snark about all of the ridiculous things Charley has bought and it will be hilarious, but underneath she and Charlie’s sister will recognise there’s a problem and Charley’s hurting. Or Charley will be unable to sleep because of a horrifying nightmare and do one of her classic dropping in at 3:00am visits to poor Garrett. It mixes together surprisingly well though at times it does feel like Charley can turn off her symptoms when they’re in the way.

Third Grave Dead Ahead (Charley Davidson #3) by Darynda Jones

Charley isn’t sleeping – and because she’s a Grim Reaper, she’s managed to get by without sleep for 15 days, all an attempt to avoid Reyes in her dreams. Of course, a sleep deprived Charley isn’t exactly  healthy or reasonably Charley – and no amount of sleep deprivation will stop Reyes escaping and approaching her in real life. He’s broken out of prison to find his step-father – the man he was thrown in prison for murdering. He’s alive, he’s out there and Reyes intends to clear his name

Of course Charley has a busy life and in addition to tackling Reyes and his handy-knife-wielding, she has a missing doctor’s wife (and a suspicious doctor) and an animal loving motorcycle gang to deal with. Also, her dad wants her to quit her job.

A lot of the elements I love about this series are very much present in this book. Charley is fun, immensely, incredibly fun. She’s ridiculously silly, she will wisecrack about anything and for some reason it doesn’t annoy me. I’d theorised in the last book that her super-healing combined with her lack of fear of death was part of the reason why she was so irreverent and reckless – but I recognise I may be stretching to try and justify an unrealistic element of a book I just find so fun. So, yes, it may not make sense, but it’s excellent. Almost as excellent as the way she bounces of Cookie – the Banter between these two best friends is hilarious and I could honestly read an entire book that just involves her and Cookie going about their day, solving a case without any supernatural elements at all.

Yes, it does get ridiculous at times – like when she is literally being threatened with death and even tortured (though through that we do get a much darker feel so the comedy doesn’t continue forever) and her comedic sleep deprivation and driving was off the mark – with zero sense of the risk that poses to others.

I liked each of the storylines – and we had three separate ones in this book. Charley looking for her client’s missing wife (which also had excellent portrayals of the different forms an abusive, controlling relationship can take), clearing Reyes’s name (which was probably the weakest investigation because it, ultimately, relied on the perpetrator trying to kill Charley which is always a rather weak investigative tool) and a brief, but fun interaction with Charley and the biker gang and the acquisition of her new guardian. I liked all of these stories individually – but collectively the story was left a little distracted – too many things going on which is then mixed with Charley’s book-long sleep deprivation means the book often loses focus and there’s a few times when I forgot an actual plot line was ongoing.

A far greater problem for me is Reyes. The oh-so-very-very-very sexy love interest. And I don’t care – I don’t care how sexy he is or if he has a body beyond all concept of beauty, he has crossed so many lines now that I cringe every time he appears. In this book he takes Charley hostage at knife point, he threatens her family, her hurts her, kidnaps her and is generally irredeemable. And Charley doesn’t see it – she continues to make excuses for him and mentally justify his actions and seems to think that “he’s ruthless and will do whatever he needs” is some kind of excuse rather than a great big warning flag that he needs to be dropped yesterday. Worse, his endless sexiness (and the fact that Charley can’t even sleep because of the lure of his sexy sexy body) becomes more cringeworthy because it feels like Charley is tolerating this completely intolerable abuser not because of fear or even a moral drive for justice even if he’s evil – but because he’s just that hot.

Second Grave on the Left (Charley Davidson #2) by Darynda Jones

Charley Davidson is the Grimm Reaper, the portal through which the dead can reach Heaven. She’s also a private investigator and when her best friend reports one of her friends has gone missing under worrying circumstances, she has to get on the case. A string of murders lead to a long buried past

One case would be enough to handle but there’s also Reyes, Charley’s mysterious and dangerous love interest – also the son of Satan. He’s hurt, he’s dying and Charley will find him in time –whether he wants her to or not.

This book should be silly. It should be ridiculous. I should be rolling my eyes. But I’m not doing any of those things because I’m laughing and smiling so much. Charley is simply hilarious and even if her character is snarking away at some of the most bizarre times, it still works. It shouldn’t, but it does.

For a while I just put this down to writing style and was willing to completely ignore the shattering of anything resembling common sense or the simple fact that absolutely no-one would act this way simply because it was funny enough for me to not care about realism. But reading through this I realise this is actually part of Charley’s character development – it’s mentioned almost in passing that she wasn’t afraid of things even as a child and that she generally doesn’t feel much fear either due to what she is (the Grim Reaper) or due to what she’s seen (as the Grim Reaper) which means her endless snark works. She isn’t cowering or worried because she genuinely isn’t afraid, has seen worse and it doesn’t come close to suppressing her sense of fun.

Which is what Charley is – immense fun. She’s sarcastic, witty, confident and skilled. She’s good at what she does, she knows she is and she’s quite happy to amuse herself along the way and she does (and me) immensely. Her character interactions in general are excellent, but especially with her best friend Cookie. I honestly think they have one of the best friendships I’ve seen in the genre, I think I could read a whole book of them doing nothing but drinking coffee and bantering back and forth

Does this levity always work? No, I’m afraid, though I always enjoy it. But there are at times, especially given the severity of the cases they’re working, when it seems badly out of place even while I’m laughing.

But Charley is more than just fun, at least. She is good at her job, she does care and while she may be very light hearted, she does get angry and hurt in this book – especially form her family; because she does care. Her father and her uncle both, for separate reasons, treat her appallingly and she doesn’t downplay that slightly. She also recognises and snarkily challenges paternalistic sexism aimed at her from these men, and their protestations of love and protection are not enough for her to instantly forgive them – even if her grudge is expressed through constant (awesome) snark. She also has, as I mentioned, an excellent relationship with Cookie (who is also extremely capable and funny) and a growing one with her sister. There are women who are less impressive, but they are countered by numerous good female characters.

Fangs for the Fantasy Episode 120

This week we discuss Game of Thrones (which is awesome), the new episode of the Vampire Diaries with its Originals Pilot (also surprisingly awesome) and Once Upon a Time (what are you doing to Regina?!)

Our book of the week was First Grave on the Right (Charley Davidson #1) by Darynda Jones

Our next books of the week are:

29th April - 6th May: Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning

6th May - 13th May: Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris

13th May - 20th May: Tempting Danger by Eileen Wilks

20th May - 27th May: The Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney

27th May - 3rd June: Shapeshifted by Cassie Alexander

 

First Grave on the Right (Charley Davidson #1) by Darynda Jones

 

Charlie Davidson, perhaps the only person who can live up to that name, is a reaper. The Grimm Reaper to be precise. She sees dead people, talks to them and helps them on their way as a walking portal to the afterlife

It also helps her as a PI – and her cop uncle – in solving murder cases for the police, being able to talk to the murdered victims and learn exactly where the bodies are buried and who the killer is will do that. Of course, it doesn’t win her many fans or converts and more than a few are suspicious of her, Garret Swopes for one.

Then she is approached by 3 ghosts – we dead lawyers from the same firm, murdered over the same case, a man wrongfully convicted for the murder of a teenaged boy. In investigating, she also finds keys to a mystery from her past – a stranger shadowy figure that follows her and saves her from danger; admittedly by severing people’s spines. She may now find the truth about him – and work to save his life for a change.

The grim reaper is always an interesting aspect to take on in Urban Fantasy that can bring with it a lot of interesting points with it. It can also be just another way of saying “medium” or “necromancer.” I think so far Charlie is in the latter category but there are a lot of hints that there’s a whole lot more to come. Of course, as it stands we have a person who can see the dead working with the police force as a private detective…

… I know! I know! It’s so very overdone that your eyes are already rolling. Magical powers, private detective, works for the police, it has been done and done and done. Yet this one works and is far more than the pattern we’ve all seen established so many times over. The way she interacts with people around her, the way she uses her powers, the way she investigates all comes together to be far more than the sum of its parts. This is classic proof that an overused pattern can still have fresh life breathed into it and still create and original, interesting and excellently fun story.

If I had to dredge up criticism of the plot it would be that we had too much happening in the middle. Too many lines on the same plot left me confused at times, trying to figure out exactly what was happening and how all these leads fit together; her own project looking for Reyes coupled with the dead lawyers and the missing children and the wrongfully convicted man caused me to pause now and then to remember how they all fit together into one case – more or less.