First Grave on the Right

Title: First Grave on the Right

Author: Darynda Jones

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Copyright Date: 2011

Print Date: [February] 2011 (My copy's an Advance Readers' Edition)

ISBN: 9780312662752

Pages: 310

Series: 1st in the Charley Davidson series




Book Description (from 1st page):

This grim reaper thing should have come with a manual.

................................Or a diagram of some kind.

A flow chart would have been nice.

Charley sees dead people.

That's right, she see's dead people. And it's her job to convince them to "go into the light." But when these very dead people have dies under less than ideal circumstances (i.e., murder), sometimes they want Charley to bring the bad guys to justice.

Complicating matters are the intensely hot dreams she's been having about an Entity who has been following her all her life...and it turns out he might not be dead after all.

Comments:

I like the cover, I like the title, and I got it free from the lovely @365andMe for a Twitter read-a-long (she apparently got it from macmillian).

I didn't read the blurb above, so it was an interesting surprise just what kind of paranormal being Charley is. I think I've only read one other grim reaper book (that being Death's Daughter by Amber Benson).

Anyway, it was a fun book. I was trying to pace myself for the read-a-long part and read Katie Up and Down the Hall: The True Story of How One Dog Turned Five Neighbors into a Family in the middle of this, so I was especially pleased about the light tone and humor when I picked it back up. It helped after the crying jag that had my face bones aching induced by Katie Up and Down the Hall.

The characters are interesting. I liked Charley, Cookie, Uncle Bob, Reyes, Garrett, the lawyers... The mystery surrounding the lawyers' murders is okay (it's certainly not the highlight, but then this book isn't billed as a mystery, so that's fine). Many seem like all the "hot" scenes. I have to say, that's not my thing. I prefer the whole looking into who Reyes really is part. But I guess that means something for everyone (well, not literally, of course).  The story isn't all tied up at the end with a neat bow, but it was settled enough that I was okay with it.

Overall... I'm looking forward to the next one.