Charley Davidson is the Grimm Reaper, the portal through
which the dead can reach Heaven. She’s also a private investigator and when her
best friend reports one of her friends has gone missing under worrying
circumstances, she has to get on the case. A string of murders lead to a long
buried past
One case would be enough to handle but there’s also Reyes, Charley’s mysterious and dangerous love interest – also the son of Satan. He’s hurt, he’s dying and Charley will find him in time –whether he wants her to or not.
This book should be silly. It should be ridiculous. I
should be rolling my eyes. But I’m not doing any of those things because I’m
laughing and smiling so much. Charley is simply hilarious and even if her
character is snarking away at some of the most bizarre times, it still works.
It shouldn’t, but it does.
For a while I just put this down to writing style and was
willing to completely ignore the shattering of anything resembling common sense
or the simple fact that absolutely no-one would act this way simply because it
was funny enough for me to not care about realism. But reading through this I
realise this is actually part of Charley’s character development – it’s
mentioned almost in passing that she wasn’t afraid of things even as a child
and that she generally doesn’t feel much fear either due to what she is (the
Grim Reaper) or due to what she’s seen (as the Grim Reaper) which means her
endless snark works. She isn’t cowering or worried because she genuinely isn’t
afraid, has seen worse and it doesn’t come close to suppressing her sense of
fun.
Which is what Charley is – immense fun. She’s sarcastic,
witty, confident and skilled. She’s good at what she does, she knows she is and
she’s quite happy to amuse herself along the way and she does (and me)
immensely. Her character interactions in general are excellent, but especially
with her best friend Cookie. I honestly think they have one of the best
friendships I’ve seen in the genre, I think I could read a whole book of them
doing nothing but drinking coffee and bantering back and forth
Does this levity always work? No, I’m afraid, though I always enjoy it. But there are at times, especially given the severity of the cases they’re working, when it seems badly out of place even while I’m laughing.
But Charley is more than just fun, at least. She is good
at her job, she does care and while she may be very light hearted, she does get
angry and hurt in this book – especially form her family; because she does
care. Her father and her uncle both, for separate reasons, treat her
appallingly and she doesn’t downplay that slightly. She also recognises and
snarkily challenges paternalistic sexism aimed at her from these men, and their
protestations of love and protection are not enough for her to instantly
forgive them – even if her grudge is expressed through constant (awesome)
snark. She also has, as I mentioned, an excellent relationship with Cookie (who
is also extremely capable and funny) and a growing one with her sister. There are
women who are less impressive, but they are countered by numerous good female
characters.
The one relationship of Charley’s I can’t run with,
unfortunately, is with Reyes. And since he’s the love interest and the core of
one of the storylines, that’s a problem. Most of the time he’s violent for a
purpose – but he’s brutal and threatening quite beyond that – and isn’t above
using those threats towards Charley. He declares a lot of love for her, but she
hasn’t actually spent a lot of time with him – most of his interactions re
before she was born (it’s complicated) or watching her from a distance. I just
wasn’t entirely sold on the idea that I should want this character to get
closer to Charley. Or care if he lives or dies beyond the fact that he has dangerous
woo-woo that is worrisome.
While the characterisation, the fun and Charley are the
gold of this book, there’s plenty of other good as well – including the
investigation (which actually involves skill and work rather than just woo-woo
which I appreciate) and the world building that is rather blown open from its
minor beginning. This just got a lot broader and with a whole lot more
potential. But there’s also smaller elements I like – like how Charley helps
souls move on when they want to, we had a very sweet moving scene with one that
shows how important Charley’s role is.
Diversitywise, Reyes is Latino and Garrett (an
investigator on the know who seems to be growing into a major part of Charley’s
story) is Black. After Charley and Cookie these are probably the most major
characters in the book. Some ominous black-suited agents are led by an Asian
man who manages to be more fun than ominous. We have Reyes’s sister who only
appears briefly but is good while she’s there – and some friends of Reyes who
are, again, brief but fun appearances. Together with several other background
characters we have a fair scattering of racial diversity both in the main cast
and in the background (I think it matters to have both – the single POC sidekick
in an all White world looks more like a gratuitous insertion than attempted
inclusion).
There is a gay man in the story – but he only shows up
for a couple of pages at the end of the story, refers to his “lifestyle” and is
deeply closeted. It’s not a bad representation – it makes the point that if he
isn’t closeted homophobia would destroy his career – but he’s only a brief
moment of inclusion for an extra twist to the story.
As may have been guessed, this book is immense fun. But
under the fun, the snark, the laughter, there’s a strong story there with an
excellent main character and some pretty good inclusion – and a world that begs
for more delving. Definitely a good read and a series to follow
