Seventh Grave and No Body (Charley Davidson, #7)

by Darynda Jones

[EBookObsessed]

If I haven’t convinced you to give this series a try by now, then I don’t know what to do with you. This series is funny and exciting with delightful characters. If paranormal is not your thing, I understand, but if you like a good paranormal romance or urban fantasy, what are you waiting for?

Charley Davidson is a private investigator and grim reaper. She can speak to the departed, which makes solving their deaths so much easier. Charley sometimes works with Uncle Bob, a detective with the Albuquerque Police Department to solve crimes.

NOTE: There might be small spoilers here on the emerging relationship between Charley and Reyes since the last book. You’ve been warned.

Someone has released the twelve hellhounds from the depths of hell and have sent them after Charley. Reyes is trying to keep her safe, but as usual Charley has other plans.

Reyes still doesn’t trust the Dealer, the escaped demon slave from hell, but Charley feels he has a part to play in their future. He has been making himself useful by working with Garret to decipher the old texts which seem to be some type of prophesy about Charley. Weird, but pretty cool, right?

Let’s start with the fact that her father has gone missing. He lied to Charley. He never intended to go sailing but he didn’t clue anyone in on the “investigation” he was working on but it seems that the man the Leland was watching has been watching Charley for awhile now, and he might have been sent by the Vatican. Yeah, that Vatican.

Charley’s ex-BFF Jessica, who never believed Charley’s confession when they were in high school, now wants Charley to use her grim reaper powers to save the life of her nephew. Charley tries to explain to Jessica that is not how her powers work, but with nothing to lose, Charley allows herself to be dragged to the hospital. She can’t possibly hurt the dying boy, could she?

Between looking for her father and trying to heal the sick, Charley and Ubie have a case. People are leaving suicide notes, and then disappearing. One person, maybe, but half a dozen? Charley notices that all of the suicide notes sound like they were written by the same person. Someone is killing them and hiding the bodies.

Every trip outside of her home puts Charley are risk of attack by the hounds, but it kind of hard to investigate from inside her apartment. She is just going to have to trust the son of Satan and the former slave to keep her from becoming a chew toy for hellhounds.

THOUGHTS:
My friend and I did a binge audiobook listen on this series and finished just in time to get an ARC of the upcoming release, Eighth Grave After Dark. God, I love this job. Our binging included some listening at work. Let me tell you, it is really hard to pretend you’re diligently working when you are trying not to laugh about everything Charley says.

This story will be the beginning of some changes to the series which I don’t want to detail here and give it all away.

I highly, highly recommend not only this series, but enjoying the audiobook version of it. Lorelei King does an incredible job with all of the characters but she especially breathes life into Charley and all her insanity.