(Charlie Davidson #1)
By: Darynda Jones
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Published: Feb 1, 2011
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating:
Charley sees dead people. That’s right, she sees dead people. And it’s her job to convince them to “go into the light.” But when these very dead people have died 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. In fact, he might be something else entirely.
I knew from the first page that this book and I were going to get along quite well when the books first paragraph contains “I was starting to wonder if repetitive exposure to nightly hallucinations resulting in earth-shattering climaxes could have any long-term side effects. Death via extreme pleasure was a serious concern. The prospect led to the following dilemma: Do I seek help or buy drinks all around?”.
Charley is the grim reaper but instead of being all dark hooded, boney and… well… dead, she is very much alive. Ever since she was born she has been able to not only see dead people but communicate with them. She is the portal to the afterlife for these spirits who have unfinished business and they flock to her for assistance. However, during the day she is a PI and leads a semi-normal life… when she isn’t drawing attention to herself by having a conversation with a ghost.
Charley has lived with her “gift” from day one and doesn’t really care what people think of her. So what if they think she deserves to be in the looney bin for believing she can see ghosts, if they knew the whole of it they would lock her up and throw away the key. She doesn’t make excuses for herself and she is the first one to start a confrontation with you if you piss her off. She is my kind of girl!
Jones did a really great job with this story. The dialogue is so hilarious that I had a hard time trying to cover up my snorts of laughter so that my husband didn’t think I was crazy. The story itself is highly entertaining and never leaves you twiddling your thumbs or skimming pages. There is the paranormal aspect since Charley is after all the Grim Reaper, the mystery part of her solving murders, the romance between her and Reyes and what I would say the best part of the book… the witty humor!
“Don’t you think if I was bleeding internally, I’d know somewhere deep inside? Like, internally?” -Charley
I’ve been curious about this book! I wasn’t sure if it was for me but your review is making me interested. I will put it in my TBR pile!
I’ve heard lots of good things about thise series – I even went out and bought this book but not started reading yet. After your review I think I will move it to the top of the TBR pile! 🙂
This sounds great! I love dark humor. Plus the cover is fantastic. I’ll be on the look out.
I realy liked this book, this series is amazing, I hope you’ll enjoy the others as much as I did. Great review
I was just talking to someone the other day about this book. They were raving about it too. LOVING the first paragraph of the book 🙂 Thanks for the review, it really does sound like a fab read!