Book 30, 2018

[chez_jae]

Second Grave on the Left by Darynda Jones

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



In a little over 24 hours, I knocked back Second Grave on the Left by Darynda Jones. It's the second book in her "Charley Davidson" series, featuring PI and Grim Reaper, Charlotte (Charley) Davidson.

It was difficult to set this book aside, because there was so much going on. There were two main plots and a minor one, all of which kept Charley hopping. When her friend/receptionist, Cookie, drags Charley out of bed in the middle of the night, it's to help Cookie find a missing woman, who is another friend of hers. As people around this woman, Mimi, begin dying, the race is on to find her before she becomes the next victim. While working on that case, Charley is visited by Reyes, the actual Son of Satan, whom she has an unusual relationship with. He reveals that his corporeal body is hidden somewhere, and that he's being tortured by demons who are hellbent on returning him to Hell. Charley is furious that Reyes won't tell her where he is, and he is determined to keep her from finding out. He claims it's a trap, and it's really Charley they're after. As the Grim Reaper, she is the literal portal to Heaven. If demons got hold of her, it would unleash an otherwordly war. Finally, when Charley finds the ghost of a man hiding in Cookie's trunk, she tackles the task of finding out who he is and what happened to him so that she can convince him to cross through her.

While investigating and trying to survive, Charley interacts with characters both old and new, such as her dysfunctional family, skiptracer Garrett, Officer Taft and his ghostly little sister Strawberry, and the ghost of a savant she knows only as Rocket. It's all Charley can do to keep up with her investigations, especially when her apartment is broken into (twice), fake FBI agents contact her in hopes of finding Mimi, some rando tries to kill her to get revenge on her father, and Dead Trunk Guy keeps sharing her shower with her. All in a week's work for the Grim Reaper!

In spite of the dire circumstances that Reyes was in and that Charley kept getting into, the book was laugh out loud funny. Due to her nature, Charley is difficult to kill, so she's able to maintain her sarcastic sense of humor even in life or death situations. I figured out where Reyes' body was before she did, but the resolution of Mimi's case blindsided all of us.

Favorite lines (and there were a lot!):
♦ With a sigh, I realized I was getting way too much exercise. I'd just have to counteract it later with cake.
♦ "Boys are yucky and we should throw rocks at them."
♦ After staring aghast for a solid minute--thank goodness I'd recently practiced aghast in the mirror...
♦ Apparently, this was Scare the Beejesus out of Charley Day. Had I known, I would have ordered a cheese ball.
♦ I hated it when I bled internally. If I was going to bleed, I wanted to see the evidence, revel in the heroics of it all.
♦ Who knew Demon Child would have such a normal name? I expected something exotic like Serena or Destiny or the Evil One That Comes in the Night to Make Us Chilly.
♦ "What? I'm telling you shit." // "No, you already told me that shit, I need new shit, shinier shit. And you're holding out."
♦ Holy cow, talk about screwing the pooch. I screwed the whole litter.
♦ I highly suspected that whoever came up with the concept of poodles in general had sold his soul to the devil. Because, really? Poodles?
♦ Love was not only blind, it often careened into Blithering Idiotsville as well.
♦ For some reason that ranked right up there with Chihuahuas and weapons of mass destruction, I just couldn't let it go.

Yeah, I could have quoted the entire book, Charley is that funny!

Fantastic story, great characters, great action and plotting, and frantic pace. I need to get my hands on the other books in the series. Five stars!

*****