Charley's life as a PI, Grim Reaper and who knows what else
becomes a little more complicated when sexy-bad-boy-love interest Reyes moves
in next door making it that much harder to avoid him. And she’d like to do so
since he may be the main suspect in an arson case that her uncle is pushing her
to solve – and doesn’t believe she doesn’t know anything about.
Of course, it’s not the most pressing case to her, not
when dozens of traumatised ghosts start populating her apartment making it
difficult to move around. It’s impossible that this many dead women haven’t
been noticed and she’s determined to find the truth – especially as the threat
gets much closer to home.
This book had a nice, strong main plot that deeply
involved Charley, her powers and gave her plenty of motivation to get into the
thick of it. It was twisty, involved with lots of red herrings and false leads
and interesting insight and Charley being her usual random self that it really
worked.
It also managed to hit a balance I’ve seen before in this
series but rarely elsewhere – both deeply and terribly tragic and painful in
places yet also surprisingly light and funny. It works, it shouldn’t, but it
does. Charley is a deeply silly often nonsensical and outright fun character
breezing through life – but it’s a life that is inherently full of death and
pain and tragedy. But that is her normal. So she can feel sad and empathetic
for the dead while still being really annoyed that the ghosts are cluttering
her apartment. She can sympathise over the brutal death of a serial killer
victim while still managing to crack jokes, avoid therapy and drive Garrett up
the wall.
It shouldn’t work as a balance – but it does. As does
this really good murder mystery which manages to combine investigation with woo
woo in a really good way. I also like how she works with law enforcement and
not just her relatives. Charlie solves crime. She does it well. Almost too well.
And that means she is actually liked by a lot of police who regard her as a
valuable resource – I like that. I also like that it’s clear both they and her
excellent friend Cookie also have skills so it’s not just a one Charlie
resource
Which means I also like the growing metaplot of the
police captain who would really like to know how Charlie does what she does.
I love the snark of this book. I love the banter of this
book. I love the fun of this book. But… like the last book I find myself
telling myself these things with juuuuust an edge of not quite believing it. It’s
still immensely fun and the way that Charlie bounces off Cookie is just amazing
and I love the pair of them utterly. But it’s just getting a little too forced,
a little too convoluted and pushed a little too far. Again, much as I mentioned
before, she will force jokes which used to be just a hilarious zany part of
this amazingly good fun character and then she will take them far too far.
Danger and Will Robinson, her breasts, were funny. Naming every other body part
rapidly becomes old. Misery, her car, was amusing. Naming ever appliance and
stick of furniture is not.
Let me be clear that it is STILL immensely amusing, still
utterly hilarious and still made me laugh out loud on several occasions. There
are few books that can make me do this and this series is always guaranteed to
get a few chuckles. It’s contrived in places but in others it is just perfect.
Another thing that hasn’t changed is my loathing for
Reyes. On the plus side, he didn’t add to his eternal death threats and abuse
of Charley which made this book far more tolerable for me. Unfortunately, there
still remains no real come back for the many terrible things he’s done in the
past (and, yes he does save her life on a semi-regular business, but that doesn’t
then give him ownership or the right to treat her the way he does). Their
relationship moves closer which I’m in tow minds about – one the one hand I
still think she should move away from him and never look back, on the other if
they actually become a couple then maybe, just maybe, he will top keeping
secrets and threatening her life. I live in very vain hope. I really do not
understand why this man is a fan favourite
His one attempt to address his behaviour is classic Urban
Fantasy love interest angst about why she could possibly love someone like him.
Still he was more tolerable in this book than in previous ones. I also liked
how when he tried to play the jealous lover card she basically took it and ran
with it for lots of mockable fun.
There is another plot line with her trying to keep him at a distance (and failing) involving him and his sister and some arsons – but given the motives behind it I really liked it. I liked how it played out, I liked how Charley didn’t get everything to plan out how she wishes because there were other things that were more important to everyone. I also liked that Charley did attempt an ultimatum – she will not enter a relationship with Reyes until he stops threatening her. She won’t be close to him if he keeps relying on intimidation
The continuing mystical Charley-has-special-woo-woo plot
is developing… but slowly. And I think I prefer it this way because the rest of
the plot is strong and she herself needs
to grow more as a character before she gets such uber powers that are being
hinted at. I quite like the progression. There’s some big huge ominous
revelations from Garrett which kept us moving without rushing – lots more information
as we inch closer to what this all means and why Charlie is so special.
This series has a number of excellent female characters –
Charley and Cookie can only ever be praised, but there’s also Charley’s excellent
sister as well with her own skills and Charley wrangling abilities and fun.
There’s also an excellent scene that turns the whole concept of a man cheating
on his wife because she’s not attractive any more on his head and pokes some
big sticks at beauty standards
There’s also another disturbing scene of victimisation
which seems to be becoming all too common in this series. Among all the lightness
were getting these terrible scenes where Charlie endures something horrendous
and appalling. And it’s depicted well, it’s stark and not downplayed in the
slightest – but I do wonder if it is necessary and if this
abuse-as-a-plot-point is going to be continually used in the series
There’s also an utterly awful sex scene in this book
between Charley and Reyes and I have no idea what it is – from her describing
him as trying to “punish her” and saying the sex was about “reprisal” and “revenge”
(while saying he definitely wasn’t hurting her and she was enjoying it) to her
bringing up how he was raped by his step-father in the middle of things along
with her pity for him… it’s just a toxic
mess of everyone-needs-therpy-clothes-on-now wrongness.
There are some POC in this series – we have Garrett who
continues to be a not insignificant character with a fairly meaty role to play,
albeit I’m not sure if I’d put him up there as one of the more involved
characters. There’s also Reyes, the love interest I continue to hate, who is
Latino, along with his sister both of which are pretty heavily involved in this
book. There’s also Angel, Charley’s
ghostly assistant and a brief appearance from his mother which promises to be
an ongoing plot line.
There’s a Deaf character with some wonderful interactions
with him, including some poking at clumsy sign language and the utter wrongness
of saying something about/around a Deaf person believing they cannot understand
you. It’s really nicely done.
Alas, there are no LGBT characters in this book, not even
the minor appearing bisexual in the last book. There are a couple of gay jokes
though – which is unnecessary, there’s more than enough humour here without
going there.
There are elements of this book and this series that are
certainly not done perfectly – but overall it remains so immensely fun that I
have to fight not to forgive all. It’s a series that brings me joy. It’s a
series that makes me smile every time I pick up the next book. It may not quite
always reach the standards the earlier books established, but it’s never not a
fun read.
