Darynda Jones: First Grave on the Right (Hardcover, 2011, St. Martin's Press)
Hardcover, 320 pages
English language
Published Feb. 7, 2011 by St. Martin's Press.
Meet Charley Davidson -- PI and grim reaper extraordinaire...
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 loved the idea but didn't care for the execution. I listened to this on audiobook and I'm not sure if I was mostly irritated with the narrator or the writing but I just really didn't like the dialog. Author was trying too hard to be punchy and funny and came off as being written for pre-teens.
Pretty impressive for a first novel. Charley Davidson is THE grim reaper-she not only sees dead people, but helps them "cross over" (I like the ambiguity of that, the author doesn't really specify WHERE they cross over). Reminded me a little of Janet Evanovich-the little bit of her I could stomach anyway. Much better written, but very much in the same style.
