Third Grave Dead Ahead-Darynda Jones

Charley Davidson: I know you are a fictional character…but can we be friends forever? Please?

“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. Granted she did imprison Reyes for all eternity, but 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 on his plan of seduction..... and revenge?”

So I’m going to sing the praises for this book and you people are just going to have to suck it and accept it. No snarky comments about this book. Nooooo. Just a giant love fest  because Darynda Jones has once again come through with further developing Charley’s personality and powers as a grim reaper, and making me laugh out loud and slap my forehead with the things that she says and does. The Reyes plot and the missing wife story line blended well together and I almost forgot that there were two separate story lines. All the characters are well balanced and there is no “plot fodder” (my husband’s description for characters that are mentioned once only to turn up dead. Filler so to speak. My husband is kinda brilliant). 

On a side note, Cookie is even more hysterical in this book than the last two. I picture myself as Cookie when I get a little bit older. But I digress.

The physical interaction between Charley and Reyes was interesting and fun to read. This was the only time they have really been around each other since the first time they met when they were teenagers. Sure, Charley has seen and did some baw-chicka-wa-wa when Reyes in his non physical form. The tension Charley felt was not so much a sexual one (though there was that one scene...), but a “OMG, this guy is an escaped convict.” Reyes is a strange combination of brutal son of Satan and gentle and caring uncle and brother.  And of course, Jones made still made Reyes uber sexy and an uber bastard all at once: makes you love to hate him, and hate to love him. Grr!

My most favorite part of the book was at the beginning when, a poor Charley, who has not slept in two weeks, drives over to Garret’s house, and upon entering his home, turns around and thinks that he has no pants on. And then, she flips out and covers her eyes yelling and embarrassed that he has no pants and crashes into the wall. I was laughing out loud so hard out loud that my husband asked me what was going on. Jones has some great comedic timing with Charley and the situations she was in throughout this book.

I was most pleased when she laid the law down with Reyes and everybody else at the end of the book. I will not go too much into detail, because really if you haven’t started reading this series yet you should and I don’t want to spoil anything for you, she pretty much gives Reyes the middle finger in an amazing display of her grim reaper powers.

I’m going to throw this out to the universe and say Darynda Jones, I totally can’t wait till October 30^th for the next installment, Fourth Grave Under My Feet. No. For reals…I can’t wait. Because I know it’s going to be totally amazing!