Review: Third Grave Dead Ahead – Darynda Jones

Third Grave Dead Ahead by Darynda Jones
Series:  Charley Davidson #3
Release Date:  January 31, 2012
Publisher:  St. Martin’s Press
Page Count:  350
Source:  Amazon, via my own wallet
Buy the book at: Amazon 
Audiobook Sample:  Provided by Macmillian Audio from the audiobook Third Grave Dead Ahead

Charley Davidson—grim reaper extraordinaire, private investigator . . . meh—is practicing her profession under the influence, caffeine and copious amounts of it, due to an extreme desire to induce insomnia. Every time she closes her eyes, Reyes Farrow, the part-human, part-supermodel son of Satan, is there. Only thing is, he’s a tad peeved. She did bind for all eternity, so it’s hard blame him. But 13 days without a wink is bound to bring out the crazy in a girl. So, when a man hires her to find his wife, Charley accepts the job with one goal in mind: Put the man behind bars, and not the wet kind. She can sense the guilt waft off him and vows to find the woman’s body and prove he’s a murderer.
In the meantime, Reyes is back in prison and none too happy about it . . . so Charley thinks, until she is carjacked by the dark-haired rake, who swears the very man he went to prison for killing is not only alive, but close by. And he wants Charley to find him.
While a visit to her old friend Rocket sheds no light on Reyes’s situation, Charley finds out the man’s wife is still alive and time is running out. Finding her before she dies would be a miracle, but she has to try. Together with the help of a fashion-impaired receptionist named Cookie, Charley sets out to bring the bad guys to justice. She just hopes Reyes is not one of them. And that she’s not hallucinating from her self-induced bout with insomnia.

When we last were with Charley, she had just tied Reyes to his human body after saving him from a bunch (ok hundreds) of demons trying to kill him.  She saved the man she loves and sent him back to jail where he’ll hopefully be safe, but also managed to piss him off so badly he refuses to speak to her.

As the story starts, three weeks have passed and Charley’s not sleeping because when she does a very pissed of Reyes visit her for a book of sexual release while threatening her bodily harm. She figures it’s better not to sleep than to deal with him.

So it’s with no sleep that Charley goes about investigating a missing wife, one she quickly think has been killed by her slimy doctor husband.  But that’s not all she’s dealing with.  She gets carjacked by an escape convict, considered armed and dangerous (hmmm…I wonder who that could be???), she’s got Garrett tailing her ass under the guise of protecting her from the escaped carjacker, a biker gang trying to keep her from talking to Rocket and her father bugging her to give up being a PI because it’s too dangerous.

Is it any wonder Charley’s a little snarky sometimes?

This addition to the Charley Davidson series has got to be my absolute favorite.  Charley’s wit and sarcasm are at an all time high, but she’s more emotionally engaged then I remember her being in the other books.  It’s refreshing to find a character who can be so greatly disappointed in the men she cherishes in her life and react by thumbing her noise at them while secretly curling up in a ball to die.

I love Charley and cannot wait for the next book.