First Grave on the Right
Darynda Jones
Official Summary:
Charley sees dead people. That’s right, she sees dead people. And it’s her job to convince them to “go into the light.” But when these very dead people have died under less than ideal circumstances (i.e. murder), sometimes they want Charley to bring the bad guys to justice. Complicating matters are the intensely hot dreams she’s been having about an Entity who has been following her all her life…and it turns out he might not be dead after all. In fact, he might be something else entirely.
First person, past tense.
I read this in, effectively, one sitting. It’s an easy read and keeps you clipping along. In fact, it’s got the page-turning formula down to a science–and I noticed it. That’s not a good thing. I felt completely manipulated. The heroine’s wisecracks are funny and original, but there are too many of them and they start to get wearing. The actual plot of the crime being solved is described chaotically in favor of the heroine’s wisecracking. It’s High Concept Schlock.
That said, I like High Concept Schlock. And it wasn’t so high concept that I couldn’t tell a lot of thought went into the the theology of the piece, even though it was never explored. (If the heroine is the Grim Reaper, and she encourages people to go toward the light, there’s theology involved. There can’t not be. And then there’s that…Other Thing. Yeah. Theology’s involved.) I liked the hint of two possible heroes, although there is actual sex with one; the heroine is still in “I hate you” mode with the other. It is part of a series, though, so I’m sure that will get explored at length and I hope that the theology will get explored, too.
I won’t get into the actual writing. It’s clean and conversational. It’s in first person, for those who care about such things; I don’t. It was a hardback borrowed from the library (I would never have bought this hardback; it’s way too light and fluffy for my personal library). The editing was good, but it was a hardback and clearly an author the publishers wanted to push, so of course they took extra effort with it.
70 just for being High Concept Schlock with a formula that made me feel manipulated and 90 for being High Concept Schlock that kept me reading despite feeling manipulated.
MPAA rating: PG-13 for mildly described sex, a tidge of swearing, and violence.
Grade: 80/100
blackened voodoo 