Book Reviews: Second Grave on the Left/It Begins/Rest in Peace

When Charley is rudely awakened in the middle of the night by her best friend who tells her to get dressed quickly and tosses clothes out of the closet at her, she can’t help but wonder what Cookie’s up to. Leather scrunch boots with a floral miniskirt? Together? Seriously? Cookie explains that a friend of hers named Mimi disappeared five days earlier and that she just got a text from her setting up a meet at a coffee shop downtown. They show up at the coffee shop, but no Mimi. But Charley finds a message on the bathroom wall. Mimi left a clue, a woman’s name. Mimi’s husband explains that his wife had been acting strange since she found out an old friend of hers from high school had been found murdered a couple weeks prior. The same woman Mimi had named in her message.

Meanwhile, Reyes Alexander Farrow (otherwise known as the Son of Satan. Yes. Literally) has left his corporeal body and is haunting Charley. He’s left his body because he’s being tortured by demons who want to lure Charley closer. But Reyes can’t let that happen. Because if the demons get to Charley, they’ll have a portal to heaven. And if they have a portal to heaven…well, let’s just say it wouldn’t be pretty. Can Charley handle hot nights with Reyes and even hotter days tracking down a missing woman? Will Cookie ever get a true fashion sense? And is there enough coffee and chocolate in the world to fuel them as they do?

Ok, if you're a regular reader of this blog, you know how much I LOVED First Grave on the Right.  It is up there on my "favorites" list.  Second Grave on the Left, the 2nd book in the series is just as good, if not a little better!  Sarcastic Charley is back again, getting herself in trouble (she wakes up one morning with 3 men wearing suits in her apartment...she proceeds to ignore them & start a pot of coffee, then just stares at them as the coffee brews) and solving mysteries.  Her latest case/mystery to solve is that of Mimi who is Cookie's friend (Cookie is her best friend/employee) who abruptly disappears.  She also has to solve the mystery of Reyes....where IS he???  She does all this while somehow managing not to get herself killed, of which there are many attempts at doing made by different people.  **My fav line from the book:  "You're about as helpful as a spoon in a knife fight."

Charley Davidson—grim reaper extraordinaire, private investigator . . . meh—is practicing her profession under the influence, caffeine and copious amounts of it, due to an extreme desire to induce insomnia. Every time she closes her eyes, Reyes Farrow, the part-human, part-supermodel son of Satan, is there. Only thing is, he’s a tad peeved. She did bind for all eternity, so it’s hard blame him. But 13 days without a wink is bound to bring out the crazy in a girl. So, when a man hires her to find his wife, Charley accepts the job with one goal in mind: Put the man behind bars, and not the wet kind. She can sense the guilt waft off him and vows to find the woman’s body and prove he’s a murderer. 
In the meantime, Reyes is back in prison and none too happy about it . . . so Charley thinks, until she is carjacked by the dark-haired rake, who swears the very man he went to prison for killing is not only alive, but close by. And he wants Charley to find him. 
While a visit to her old friend Rocket sheds no light on Reyes’s situation, Charley finds out the man’s wife is still alive and time is running out. Finding her before she dies would be a miracle, but she has to try. Together with the help of a fashion-impaired receptionist named Cookie, Charley sets out to bring the bad guys to justice. She just hopes Reyes is not one of them. And that she’s not hallucinating from her self-induced bout with insomnia.

All I can really say is, I CAN NOT WAIT UNTIL 1.31.12!  Third Grave Dead Ahead's release date.  I MUST buy it and see what is next for Charley!  Ending  note:  I would like to give a HUGE thanks to Darynda Jones, as I was strictly a "romance/contemporary romance" reader, until I picked up First Grave.  Darynda has opened up a whole new genre for me, and I'm loving it!  :)

Out walking alone one rainy night, Lucy becomes convinced that someone or something is following her. Spooked, she ducks into a cemetery to try and lose her stalker. Panicking in the darkness, she slips and stumbles into an open grave only to discover she is not alone in there. . . . Lucy manages to escape, but she doesn't get away unscathed. She begins having terrifying visions and dreams and she still can't shake the feeling of an unseen presence, always watching, waiting. . . . Who was the girl in the grave? And what has she done to Lucy?

I picked It Begins up after reading the back cover, it sounded REALLY good.  I have to say, I wasn't overly impressed at first, and the ONLY reason I kept reading after the first few chapters is because I logged onto Goodreads & saw that most people LOVED the book and the author, Richie Tankersley Cusick (who is the author of numerous horror novels, including The House Next Door, April Fools, and several Buffy the Vampire Slayer books.)  I figured it would get a lot better if that many people liked it.  I WAS right, it DID get better.  The story-line is really a good one.  What I didn't like is the over-explanation/rambling of Lucy (main character).  I guesstimate that I skimmed over approximately 30% of the book, and I don't feel as I missed out on anything.  


In a nutshell, Lucy who has just lost her mother, is forced to leave her home, friends and everything she knows, to move in with her Aunt Irene (who her Mother could not stand and barely ever talked about) and her Step-Cousin Angela, even though neither of them really want her there and don't go out of their way to be hospitable. Then she meets Byron, a sexy boy that all the girls want but can't have, as he keeps to himself, but he has a dark secret only for Lucy.

Still stalked by an unseen force and plagued by unspeakable visions, Lucy feels she cannot carry on for much longer—especially now that Byron, the one person who understood what she was going through, is dead. No one else believes her. She is still alone. And still in grave danger.

That said, I liked it enough to go on and read the 2nd book, Rest In Peace, and will be purchasing the 3rd & 4th books in The Unseen series as well to see how it all ends up.  I'll do a final review after the 4th book (Sin and Salvation), just to wrap up my opinion on the series overall.


I know a lot of book reviewers will go into graphic detail of the book, often including spoilers.  I don't/won't do that, for the simple fact that I HATE spoilers.  I just want to be given a brief overview and general opinion on a book.  I figured if I want that, there have to be others who prefer that also.  If you want spoilers/more detail, my reviews are not the place for you, unfortunately.