First Grave On The Right Review

Hi readers,

When I saw this book supported by one of my favorite authors, as well as another author I enjoy reading, I thought I'd buy it and see what it was like. It's been on my bookshelf for a little while now -just like Highgate Vampire- and I thought I'd carry on reading through my top shelf with First Grave. I believed it was the first book in a trilogy, but now I know this is actually a series, with the seventh book coming out  this autumn. So, has the first left me keen to get my hands on the others and read through yet another series? Let's find out.

Darynda Jones, an American writer has so far written this series and a young adult trilogy. She has won a lot of different awards for her writing. She started writing at a young age and after giving it up to do a number of different jobs, including teaching and have a family, she started writing again with the goal to become published.

First Grave is about Charley Davidson, a grim reaper and a PI. She spends all of her time hanging out with ghosts, solving cases for the police and clients, drinking a lot of coffee and wondering about the mysterious Reyes. Along for the ride with her is her dad, uncle, best friend/PA Cookie and ghost teenage boy, Angel. The main plot of the novel is that Charley has to solve the murder of three lawyers, which also ties into a human trafficking ring, another murder, a missing teenager and a wrongly jailed man. The subplot, which in places seems to become the main plot, is about Charley's 'relationship' with Reyes, who also turns out to be her guardian. Reyes, who's in a comma, visits Charley in spirit form and they have a bit of bedroom time throughout the novel. So, yeah the grim reaper makes love to a ghost/ astral projection. She also sets out to find more about him as his records are seemingly very empty.

The narrative is told in first person, present tense by Charley herself. A lot of her character comes through because of this, but the problem is that it becomes something of a burden on the plot. She is over sarcastic, too witty, trying too hard to be sexy and seems to over exaggerated lot. Her sense of humor was also lost on me. Maybe, I am being a bit too harsh, but I just feel like she became unrealistic because all these things were too over used in the novel. Also, I got tried about hearing her addiction to coffee. Beside from all that though, Charley makes an interesting grim reaper. I'd have liked to have found out more about how she came to be one, but that's actually something she doesn't understand herself. Maybe in further books this gets looked at?

It's not just her character that has problems though. The love interested, Reyes didn't work for me. The description of him was a little bit 'too perfect dream boyfriend,' for my liking. Later, it's suggested he might be a supernatural being and that's a possible reason why he looks like he does. However, he just didn't come across as being a strong enough character for me. Okay, so he is in this ghost form and Charley can't see him very well. He speaks very little and to me beside the bedroom action and being overly protective, doesn't display any other signs of love for her. Maybe this gets stronger in the other books though? His other problem is that he's the subplot and because its a first person narrative, there's not much about him and it's bias.

The other characters: Charley's dad and uncle, Cookie, Garrett- a skiptracer, who fancies Charley-and the ghost lawyers, come across a lot better and more realistic. Though they are the supporting characters, they all have their own uses and Jones does this really well. Their backgrounds also seemed to be very detailed and sometimes their own goals also come across. There is tension between a few of them and Charley at different points, but this just adds more and allows their natures to come through.

Overall, I did enjoy reading this novel. It was slightly different from my normal books because it had the crime and detective elements, which have never really interested me. The supernatural elements keep me very entertained though. I did have issues with the characters, though I was well into the book before this happened. I'd be interested to read the second book to see if there were improvements to the characters and plot. I'd recommend this novel if you like this genre or are into similar. If not still give it a try and see what you think.  

Image From:
http://thegreatthegoodandthebad.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/first-grave-on-right-by-darynda-jones.html

Additional information from:
http://www.daryndajones.com/bio/