Review: Second Grave on the Left – Darynda Jones

Charley Davidson, Grim Reaper Extraordinaire, is back in this sexy, suspenseful novel of supernatural shenanigans.

When Charley is rudely awakened in the middle of the night by her best friend who tells her to get dressed quickly and tosses clothes out of the closet at her, she can’t help but wonder what Cookie’s up to. Leather scrunch boots with a floral miniskirt? Together? Seriously? Cookie explains that a friend of hers named Mimi disappeared five days earlier and that she just got a text from her setting up a meet at a coffee shop downtown. They show up at the coffee shop, but no Mimi. But Charley finds a message on the bathroom wall. Mimi left a clue, a woman’s name. Mimi’s husband explains that his wife had been acting strange since she found out an old friend of hers from high school had been found murdered a couple weeks prior. The same woman Mimi had named in her message.

Meanwhile, Reyes Alexander Farrow (otherwise known as the Son of Satan. Yes. Literally) has left his corporeal body and is haunting Charley. He’s left his body because he’s being tortured by demons who want to lure Charley closer. But Reyes can’t let that happen. Because if the demons get to Charley, they’ll have a portal to heaven. And if they have a portal to heaven…well, let’s just say it wouldn’t be pretty. Can Charley handle hot nights with Reyes and even hotter days tracking down a missing woman? Will Cookie ever get a true fashion sense? And is there enough coffee and chocolate in the world to fuel them as they do?

I love this series.  You don’t even have to be a lover of paranormal books to get Charley and the gang.  For the humor alone in this series people should pick up a copy the books.  Any woman who names her breast (Danger and Will Robinson) and her ovaries (Beam-Me-Up and Scotty) is alright in my book.

Second Grave on the Left picks up about a week after First Grave on the Right ended.  Reyes is missing (after disappearing from the hospital the day they were to pull the plug) and Charley wonders where he could be.  Unfortunately, she doesn’t have time to worry about all this because her best friend and secretary, Cookie, burst into her apartment in the middle of the night needing Charley to help locate her missing friend, Mimi.

So off our fearless PI / Grim Reaper goes to help Cookie.  Along the way, Charley discovers there’s a dead body in the trunk of Cookie’s new car (which she promptly freaks out about), she’s being tailed by the Albuquerque PD who think Reyes will be stopping by, and “FBI” agents stopping by for a chat and one of her dad’s old collar’s out for revenge. 

Through all this is Charley’s struggle with what Reyes plans on doing to stop the Apocalypse from happening.  Charley can’t see living the rest of her life without Reyes there, since he’s always been with her, but he’s hell bent on stopping his father from using him.

In the end, Charley solves the case of the missing Mimi and what led her to run away (she managed to nab the bad guys after suffering a serious beat down.  You go, Charley!!), clears the air with her family and makes a decision she’s positive Reyes will hate her for but one that she can live with.

I CANNOT wait for the next book to come out.  February can’t come fast enough!