First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones

With scorching-hot tension and high-octane humor, First Grave on the Right is your signpost to paranormal suspense of the highest order.

This whole grim reaper thing should come with a manual.

Or a diagram of some kind.

A flowchart would have been nice.

Charley Davidson is a part-time private investigator and full-time grim reaper. Meaning, she sees dead people. Really. 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 (like 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. But what does he want with Charley? And why can't she seem to resist him? And what does she have to lose by giving in?

First Grave on the Right (Charley Davidson, book one) by Darynda Jones

Start date: Thursday, August 14, 2014

End date: Sunday, August 17, 2014

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

             Let me say that the only time I've read a book faster than this book was when I read The Hunger Games trilogy in less than two days. I didn't eat, sleep or go to the bathroom until I finished reading all about Katniss Everdeen and Panem. That being said, I finished First Grave on the Right in two, three-hour sessions before bed. I’m making that number up because it’s been over two months since I read the book and I couldn’t possibly remember exactly how many hours I spent reading it but I do know I finished it in two nightly sessions. (Side note: I mainly read before going to bed. It puts me in the mood to sleep and it’s a good wind down from the rest of my day. You should try it sometime if you haven’t before.) I have to admit this book was addicting. I had such a hard time putting it down so I ended up staying up later than I wanted to just so I could find out what happened next.

            The main character is Charlotte “Charley” Davidson, a consultant with the police department (reminiscent of Adrian Monk from Monk). Except, Charley has no formal training as a detective/police officer and her uncle, Bob, happens to be the chief of police. There’s something unique about Charley, though—she can see dead people! She’s a sparkly beacon of light that dead people flock to, and she helps ghosts with their unfinished emotional business so they can cross over (reminiscent of Melinda Gordon from Ghost Whisperer). The difference is that the ghosts go through Charley when they cross over and, as far as she knows, she’s the only one in the world who can do this because—surprise—she’s the grim reaper. You know, black cloak, scythe, and skeleton body? Yes, that grim reaper, minus the black cloak, scythe, and skeleton body, of course. (Because an unconventional looking main character would never make a good book, right?) Who was the first person Charley ever “reaped?” Her mother, after she gave birth to her. Interested already? You should be.

            The storyline of this book is a gruesome triple murder that Charley has been brought in to help solve. Her hot-as-hell coworker, Garret, whom she confided in about being the grim reaper one night, resents her, considers her involvement in crimes scenes nepotism, and thinks she’s insane. At a crime scene, Charley will walk around until she runs into the ghost of the departed and asks them who or what killed them, which looks like Charley is talking to the air. Then Charley tells Uncle Bob who the killer(s) is/are and he arrests the accused person(s). That latter part of justice served is fuzzy at best because our narrator, Charley, doesn’t spend much time talking about it. The fact Charley always knows how a person died leads her coworkers to suspect she’s a serial killer and her uncle arrests random people to cover his niece’s crimes.

            Charley lives alone but she never feels alone with all the ghosts around her. One such ghost is the apparent former resident of Charley’s apartment whom she has nicknamed Mr. Wong because she doesn’t know his name and she can’t find out because he’s affixed to the corner of her living room and can’t seem to see, hear, or feel. Mr. Habersham is another ghost in the apartment building but unlike Mr. Wong, he can move around. Charley frequently finds him peeping on her in the shower. Her dead great aunt, Lillian, who doesn’t seem to know she’s dead comes over to Charley’s apartment to visit often and eventually begins a romantic relationship with Mr. Habersham. Charley’s partner of twelve years is the ghost of a thirteen-year-old gang-banger named Angel who was killed in a drive-by shooting. Angel has an arrangement with Charley that whatever money he makes helping her goes to his mother by an anonymous donation each month. With all the interesting, diverse characters within this novel, you see why it was hard to put down.  

            Then there’s the man who visits Charley in her dreams. Every night, Charley dreams about a sexy man who ravishes her and, unlike other sex scenes I’ve read in books, these scenes are steamy, realistic, and true to the characters. Within the first sex scene, the man calls her “Dutch,” a name only one person has ever called her. This sets off her pursuit of finding out who he is, where he is, and what he is. SPOILER: The man is Reyes Farrow, a boy Charley ran into as a teenager. She is taking a night walk with her sister when she hears a scuffle and sees the boy. She’s drawn to the sensation that something is different about him (boy, is she right). He sees Charley and her sister and threatens them. Charley doesn’t back down and he pushes her further, threatening to rape her. At this point, I’m completely against Charley pursuing him any further because, seriously, he almost raped her. I don’t care how sexy his dreams are. Dude is crazy and dangerous. Then, at the end of the novel, we learn that he’s a creature who has been alive longer than Charley has and who decides to be born in a human body so that he can be with her. CAN I JUST SAY HOW CREEPY THAT IS? Charley is not put off by this, though, because she’s crazy. After being born into a human body to be with her, he never seeks her out until after he fell into a coma and then only to have passionate sex with her.

            That alone almost ruins the book for me. I love the characters and the potential for a great story, though, so I try to disregard the conclusion of the secondary plot. I really did like this book and I thought the depth of characterization alone is reason enough to pick up First Grave on the Right.