The Prophet by Amanda Stevens

I have now read all the books in The Graveyard Queen series by Amanda Stevens, The Prophet, being the third one; there is a fourth due for release later this year. I always read a series in order, and I always recommend others do too. With most series you can start anywhere and then go back to the beginning to read them in order and be able to follow the developments because generally speaking events from previous books might be referenced but not integral to the current book's story. Some series, such Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series, can be read in any order because main characters don't recur from book to book and thus the developments from previous books have no bearing whatsoever on later installments. With The Graveyard Queen series it is really imperative to read them in order. Elements in the first one set up the main stories for the second and third (especially the third) and events in the second one inform changes in Amelia's character and are referenced throughout the story in the third book. Now pretty much everything set up in the first two books has been wrapped up in the third book, however, there's a couple elements in the third book that presumably set up the main story for the next book.

If you read the review for the first book, you know I had some reservations about the series. Basically the most interesting and best thing about the series is the cemetery customs and traditions and history that plays a role in the book. However, in this third book, there isn't much cemetery restoring going on and thus that part of the book is lacking. Ultimately this series is not as expertly written or characterized as some other series might be. But it is a quick read to read between other substantial books.

Amelia, our erstwhile cemetery restorer and ghost seer, is back in Charleston recovering from the events that took place in Asher Falls; these events have left her both physically and emotionally scarred and traumatized and have seemingly changed her. Amelia is now reluctantly coerced into finding a dead cop's murderer by the ghost of the dead cop himself (whom we first met in the first book). This ghost is different from the others: he manifests in a way that at first fooled Amelia into thinking he was still a live human being, and he is determined to track down his killer so that he can finally have some peace and move on.

As Amelia digs into this mystery (somewhat clumsily because she is more researcher/restorer than hardened detective) it becomes obvious to her that all roads lead to Devlin, the magnetic, charismatic detective haunted by the possessive ghost of his wife and the ghost of his daughter, who is increasingly appealing to Amelia for help. It also appears that there is more to the deaths of Devlin's wife and daughter and that they might be linked to cop's murder, but what's the connection?

The end of the story unexpectedly reveals some heartbreaking twists to the mysteries.

--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

Search This Blog