Book 3, 2018
Jan. 8th, 2018 11:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chez_jaeDue to a minor cat-astrophe, I have the morning off, and I used it to finish reading Night of the Loving Dead by Casey Daniels. It's the fourth installment in the "Pepper Martin" series, featuring cemetery tour guide and reluctant medium, Pepper Martin.
When Pepper's boss gets sick, it's up to Pepper to take the woman's place at a cemetery convention in Chicago. While touring one of the local cemeteries, she meets the ghost of Madeline Tremayne, a former research scientist who was murdered in a mugging gone wrong. Instead of asking Pepper to solve her murder, however, Madeline seems more keen on sending Pepper after the doctor she used to work for, Dr Hilton Gerard. Madeline claims the man is misusing funding and cooking the books at his research facility for indigent patients with mental health issues.
Pepper has had some exasperating clients before, but nothing has prepared her for how snide and condescending Madeline is towards her. Still, she knows if she doesn't help the woman, her ghost will stick around until the case is solved. Madeline reveals that she is concerned about Dan Callahan being involved with the research facility, and Pepper has met Dan before. She doesn't believe he's on the take, and she vows to do all she can to prove his innocence.
As the story unfolds, Madeline keeps revealing more and more about herself, Dan, the good doctor, and the work being done at the facility. When Pepper learns that Dan and Madeline were married, and that Dan still carries a torch for the woman, it throws her for a loop.
First of all, the book "began" in the middle, with Pepper getting abducted, then it backtracks to the beginning. I fricking hate when a story does that. Guh. Second of all, I disliked the entire abducted-to-be-turned-into-a-lab-rat trope. It's not that it wasn't well-written, I just plain didn't like it. Subjective opinion, blah blah blah. However, when Madeline managed to take over Pepper's body, it was too much for me. I would have given up on the book then, but I'm no quitter! I slogged through the entire, horrid thing. It was a hot mess. Again, this is my personal opinion, but I read most of the last quarter of the story with a sneer on my face.
Favorite line: I didn't want to be threatened, shot at, beat up, or followed by menacing hit-man types (all of which happens when I'm on a case), but at least being threatened and shot at and blah blah blah keeps me awake and interested.
I've enjoyed every other book in this series, but this one left me thoroughly dismayed and disgruntled. Personally, I did not like it: I didn't like the premise, I didn't like most of the other characters, and I didn't like that we didn't truly learn what went down when the feces hit the fan.
This one gets a two, and one of those is for the series as a whole:
**
When Pepper's boss gets sick, it's up to Pepper to take the woman's place at a cemetery convention in Chicago. While touring one of the local cemeteries, she meets the ghost of Madeline Tremayne, a former research scientist who was murdered in a mugging gone wrong. Instead of asking Pepper to solve her murder, however, Madeline seems more keen on sending Pepper after the doctor she used to work for, Dr Hilton Gerard. Madeline claims the man is misusing funding and cooking the books at his research facility for indigent patients with mental health issues.
Pepper has had some exasperating clients before, but nothing has prepared her for how snide and condescending Madeline is towards her. Still, she knows if she doesn't help the woman, her ghost will stick around until the case is solved. Madeline reveals that she is concerned about Dan Callahan being involved with the research facility, and Pepper has met Dan before. She doesn't believe he's on the take, and she vows to do all she can to prove his innocence.
As the story unfolds, Madeline keeps revealing more and more about herself, Dan, the good doctor, and the work being done at the facility. When Pepper learns that Dan and Madeline were married, and that Dan still carries a torch for the woman, it throws her for a loop.
First of all, the book "began" in the middle, with Pepper getting abducted, then it backtracks to the beginning. I fricking hate when a story does that. Guh. Second of all, I disliked the entire abducted-to-be-turned-into-a-lab-rat trope. It's not that it wasn't well-written, I just plain didn't like it. Subjective opinion, blah blah blah. However, when Madeline managed to take over Pepper's body, it was too much for me. I would have given up on the book then, but I'm no quitter! I slogged through the entire, horrid thing. It was a hot mess. Again, this is my personal opinion, but I read most of the last quarter of the story with a sneer on my face.
Favorite line: I didn't want to be threatened, shot at, beat up, or followed by menacing hit-man types (all of which happens when I'm on a case), but at least being threatened and shot at and blah blah blah keeps me awake and interested.
I've enjoyed every other book in this series, but this one left me thoroughly dismayed and disgruntled. Personally, I did not like it: I didn't like the premise, I didn't like most of the other characters, and I didn't like that we didn't truly learn what went down when the feces hit the fan.
This one gets a two, and one of those is for the series as a whole:
**
