Review: Third Grave Dead Ahead by Darynda Jones |

Third Grave Dead Ahead
(Charley Davidson, #3)
By: Darynda Jones
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Published: January 1, 2012
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating:

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Paranormal private eye. Grim reaper extraordinaire. Whatever. Charley Davidson is back! And she’s drinking copious amounts of caffeine to stay awake because, every time she closes her eyes, she sees him: Reyes Farrow, the part-human, part-supermodel son of Satan. Yes, she did imprison him for all eternity, but come on. How is she supposed to solve a missing persons case, deal with an ego-driven doctor, calm her curmudgeonly dad, and take on a motorcycle gang hell-bent on murder when the devil’s son just won’t give up?

I think that this might have been my favorite so far in the series! There is a lot more Reyes in this book than previous books and a lot more Swoopes too. Although I must admit, I am starting to lean more towards Swoopes than Reyes. Maybe his violence is too much for me, or the fact that Swoopes always seems to be there for Charlie. Oh and Charlie is the same old witty character that I love.

In this book Reyes is bound to his body which is stuck in jail. He is livid with Charlie for binding him to his human body and he’s determined to get out and take care of some unfinished business. The only problem is, Charlie has no clue how to undo what she did. I liked getting a more in depth look at Reyes. It seemed like the majority of this book was the dissection of Reyes, and even though he was extremely abused by his father as a kid and has spent the last 10 yrs in jail for murder, there was just something about him that confused me. He seemed to run hot and cold during the book.

There is a lot more than just Reyes to this book though. Charlie is searching for a missing wife whom she has a feeling her husband, who tried to hire her first, had a hand in her disappearance. While trying to talk with her ghost friend who has a gift for know which spirits has recently passed over, she runs into the biker gang who own the property that her friend Rocket “resides” in. That made for some really interesting pages. Not to mention the ending… (yup, I’m going to leave you hanging). Don’t want to ruin the “awww” factor for you.

I must admit that this book brought out quite a few reactions from me. Of course I laughed because Darynda has a great sense of humor and it shows in her books, but I also remember throwing my hand over my mouth and gasping at a few surprises and thinking to myself, “no no no no.” I don’t know about you but I very much enjoy a book that can wrap me in so completely and have me reacting to it in a way that makes the Mister wonder what I’m reading.

“Never trust a man with a penis.”