The Restorer by Amanda Stevens

The Restorer is the first novel in Amanda Stevens' The Graveyard Queen series that features Amelia Grey. The series takes its name from the nickname Amelia uses on her blog (I think). Amelia has followed her father into the business of restoring old cemeteries to their former glories. As a girl she assisted her father in his duties as caretaker of several local cemeteries; he taught her everything she knows about the research, techniques, hard work and dedication that go into restoring long neglected or abandoned cemeteries. Like her father, Amelia can see ghosts, and her father has instilled several rules in her life meant to preserve her safety and sanity: among them are never let them know you can see them and stay away from those who are haunted. But her father has kept secrets from her and this knowledge has driven a wedge between father and daughter and could cost Amelia everything.

Having just taken on the major project of restoring the old and long neglected Oak Grove Cemetery that's affiliated with a local Charleston university, this is the project that could make or break Amelia's business. Those that sit on the Emerson University committee that hired her have valuable connections in the city's power circles and many also sit on the trustee boards of local historical organizations and preservation societies.

However, when a murder victim is found interred on top of an ancient grave in the old cemetery all of this is thrown into peril. For fifteen years previously another murder victim was discovered in a mausoleum in the same cemetery. The crime remained unsolved because it was covered up by those in Charleston's power circles who all had connections to Emerson University and the exclusive secret society that operated in the dark shadows of the underworld--its members sworn to secrecy and loyalty at all costs.

The discovery of the first victim brings Detective Devlin into Amelia's life. He's charismatic, attractive, magnetic, and (quite literally) haunted. The latter of which makes him automatically off limits to Amelia because the haunted are dangerous to those who can see ghosts. However, staying away from Devlin is easier said than done when another murder victim is found in a subsequent search of the cemetery grounds. Before long Amelia is sucked into the mystery of the murders, the shadowy underworld of the cemetery, the dark secret society of the university and the dark netherworld that is home to ghosts and other dark beings.

The story is steeped in the unique Southern culture of Charleston and the local Gullah culture as well as the rich history of the city's cemetery iconography, history and customs--all of which are far more interesting and intriguing than most of the characters that populate the book. The twist in the ending is enough to bring readers back for more in the second installment of the series. Fans of supernatural mysteries will enjoy this read.

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie

How To Be A Heroine: Or What I've Learned From Reading Too Much by Samantha Ellis

I feel as if I could write a book subtitled "What I've Learned From Reading Too Much" except all my lessons would be culled from Greek mythology, the Babysitters' Club, the lives of British queens, crime mysteries, suspense thrillers and celebrity and entertainment gossip. I first ran across How To Be A Heroine by Samantha Ellis in an ad in BookPage. The title sounded intriguing and once I looked it up on Amazon, I was in for reading it. It reminds me of the literacy autobiography writing assignment that I had in one of my English composition classes in college--except this is the literacy autobiography on steroids. The premise of this book is that the author revisits the seminal texts that she read in her youth by examining the lessons and impressions of the novels that she had upon her first readings when she was younger. Ellis has then re-read the novels as an adult specifically for the writing of her own book to see if the novels hold up to her original i

Heat Lightning by John Sandford

I'd previously read John Sandford's first Virgil Flowers novel, Dark of the Moon , a few years back and found it to be a quick, well written read. Recently I discovered he has since written three more Flowers titles and decided to start with the second title and read through to the fourth and most recent one. Heat Lightning is the second Flowers installment. The darkness of the crimes committed that must be solved in the novel are leavened by the lighter presentation of Flowers and the story. It works well together--a dark crime doesn't always need dark prose to back it up. Virgil Flowers is Lucas Davenport's go to man in the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension when there's a sensitive, tough or otherwise puzzling case to solve. Flowers has a high clearance rate and can often turn around a case in about a week. This particular case is especially perplexing with quite a few red herrings thrown into the mix to throw everyone--Flowers and the reader in

The Whisperers by John Connolly

If there was one thing Jimmy didn't care for, it was competition, ... There were some exceptions to that rule: he was rumored to have a sweet deal with the Mexicans, but he wasn't about to try to reason with the Dominicans, or the Columbians, or the bikers, or even the Mohawks. If they wanted to avail themselves of his services, as they sometimes did, that was fine, but if Jimmy Jewel started questioning their right to move product he and Earle would end up tied to chairs in the [bar] with pieces of themselves scattered by their feet, assuming their feet weren't among the scattered pieces, while the bar burned down around their ears, assuming they still had ears. from page 86 The Whisperers is John Connolly's newest Charlie Parker installment in which some beloved characters reappear and in which previous characters from another Parker installment reappear to shed further light on the big baddie that may or may not be coming for Parker in the future. This newest inst

A Series Of (Un)Fortunate Reviews

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