First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones

 

First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones

Paranormal fiction with a bunch of straight people. Straight romantic subplot.

Warnings: 

Short scene with non-consensual touching

Mentions of physical abuse

Graphic depictions of violence

Murder

Mentions of human trafficking

Mentions of child abuse

Mentions of child death

Oh my. That is a lot of warnings. Even with those warnings, this isn't really a dark book.

Charley Davidson is a grim reaper. The grim reaper. She is also a private detective. And does consultant work with the police department. She is a very busy woman. She is also badass and hilarious.

In this book, which is the first of a series, Charley is trying to solve the murders of three lawyers. And find this dude she met as a teenager. And deal with people thinking she is crazy because she can see and talk to ghosts. 

There is a wonderful cast of characters in this book. And it is a pretty large cast of characters. But it never really got confusing for me to remember who was who. Which is sometimes a problem for me, but it wasn't this time. I might have forgotten what a character looked like, but I remembered who they were. 

And while the book does touch on some pretty dark things (see warnings), most are just quick mentions and that's it. If each of those warnings had pages of details of what happened, I wouldn't have liked this book as much. 

Which, I really enjoyed this book. It is written in Charley's point of view and that girl has some fantastic inner thoughts. 

 There were two major plots going on at once. Both of which came to a conclusion of sorts in the last couple of chapters. And a subplot that also came to a conclusion at the same time as the major plots. The last few chapters were full of reveals and intense moments. But the ending didn't feel rushed like the writer was trying to tie up all the loose ends at once. I might have pushed one of the big reveals to the next book, just to keep people screaming for more, but that is just me. 

All in all, great book. Fun and easy to read. Well written with fantastic characters. I highly recommend it. And I really need to get the rest of the books in the series...