Review: Seventh Grave and No Body

Author: Darynda Jones
Series: Charley Davidson, #7
Published: October 21st 2014
Publisher: Piatkus
Length: 352 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: The Book Depository

Twelve. Twelve of the deadliest beasts ever forged in the fires of hell have escaped onto our plane, and they want nothing more than to rip out the jugular of Charley Davidson and serve her lifeless, mangled body to Satan for dinner. So there’s that. But Charley has more on her plate than a mob of testy hellhounds. For one thing, her father has disappeared, and the more she retraces his last steps, the more she learns he was conducting an investigation of his own, one that has Charley questioning everything she’s ever known about him. Add to that an ex-BFF who is haunting her night and day, a rash of suicides that has authorities baffled, and a drop-dead sexy fiancé who has attracted the attentions of a local celebrity, and Charley is not having the best week of her life. But all of that combined barely scratches the surface of her problems. Recent developments—and a few distressing prophesies—have forced her to become a responsible adult. Exactly the kind of adult she’s never aspired to be. To conquer such a monumental task, she’s decided to start small. Really small. She gets a pet. But how can she save the world against the forces of evil when she can’t even keep a goldfish alive?

A tad north of hell, a hop, skip, and a jump past the realm of eternity, is a little place called Earth, and Charley Davidson, grim reaper extraordinaire, is determined to do everything in her power to protect it.

We’re doomed.

This being the seventh installment in the Charley Davidson series, there really isn’t much left to say that hasn’t been said already. Fans of the series already know what they’re signing up for, and those of you who have yet to meet Charley and Reyes… who are you and what are you even doing here, folks?

When First Grave on the Left (or Right, I can never remember that) first came out, I didn’t think Darynda’s wonderful sense of humor would last. Sometimes things that are funny in the beginning end up getting old and exhausting pretty darn fast. And yet here we are, seven books later, and the Charley Davidson books are still just as fresh, just as entertaining as they were when her story started. What’s more, the more we know these characters, the longer they are a constant in our lives, the more we crave their company and the laughs they inevitably bring.

While Seventh Grave isn’t my favorite of the series, Darynda gave us exactly what we’ve learned to expect: hilarious Charley at her best and at her worst, a marvelous set of secondary characters, multiple plotlines to follow and Reyes to swoon over. Honestly, what more can a reader possibly need?

In Seventh Grave, Charley, Reyes and their many ridiculous sidekicks prepare to fight the Twelve, twelve hounds of hell sent after Charley by some yet undiscovered foe. Scared for Charley and the treasure she carries around with her, Reyes decides to follow her every step and ensure her safety himself. Now really, does that sound like something Charley would endure quietly? No. No, it doesn’t.

So Charley is busy dodging Reyes’s constant attention, solving a multiple murder case for the FBI, trying to find her missing father, dealing with a dead former BFF, messing with other people’s love lives and keeping a goldfish alive. In other words, it’s just another day at Davidson Investigations.

Seventh Grave leaves quite a few things open, which is understandable now that we’re finally getting the big picture. Darynda is uncovering the overall story arc slowly and skillfully, with a fabulous sense of timing. Eighth Grave After Dark will inevitably bring more changes for the gang, but we’ll have to wait until May 19th to find out what they are.


Where the heck is TARDIS when we need it?

A copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher for review purposes. No considerations, monetary or otherwise, haev influenced the opinions expressed in this review.