Science Fiction and Fantasy Association of New Zealand

First Grave On The Right First Grave On The Right
Charley Davidson Book 1
by Darynda Jones
Piatkus

Supplied for review by Hachette New Zealand

Reviewed By: Jan Butterworth

Charley Davidson is shiny. Very shiny. She doesn’t sparkle though. She is the portal spirits must travel through to reach the entrance to Heaven, aka The Grim Reaper. Her seeing dead people also helps her homicide detective uncle have a high solved rate on murder cases – it’s much easier to figure out who the murderer is if you can just ask the victim who killed them!

Three lawyers have been murdered and they turn to Charley to find who their killer is and help them get justice. She has a dead assistant, Angel, and a live assistant, Cookie, who help solve these cases. Also popping up is Garret, a bounty hunter frenemy, and The Entity, a dream lover who is appearing more frequently. Charley discovers he may not be a ghost after all..........

First Grave on the Right is action-packed, fast-paced, hilarious, has some hot sex scenes, and is very hard to put down. Read it when you want some light hearted, mindless enjoyment. Charley is a great character, a cross between a competent Stephanie Plum and a Betsy the Vampire Queen minus the shoe obsession.

This is an impressive debut novel. The writing is smart, fun, and moves quickly. I’m looking forward to finding out what Charley does next.

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