Review--Third Grave Dead Ahead by Darynda Jones

Paranormal private eye. Grim reaper extraordinaire. Whatever. 

Charley Davidson is back! And she’s drinking copious amounts of caffeine to stay awake because, every time she closes her eyes, she sees him: Reyes Farrow, the parthuman, part-supermodel son of Satan. Yes, she did imprison him for all eternity, but come on. How is she supposed to solve a missing persons case, deal with an ego-driven doctor, calm her curmudgeonly dad, and take on a motorcycle gang hellbent on murder when the devil’s son just won’t give up?


Darynda Jones seriously gets better with each and every book she writes! Third Grave Dead Ahead picks up where we left off in Second Grave on the Left, a few weeks later. Reyes is trapped in his body and back in prison. And Charley has been refusing to sleep for weeks on end! But in those quick little moments when her eyes happened to close, she is with him. And he both wants to be there and not. She can tell. Mostly because he told her so!

While having that on her plate, she also has a doctor coming in and asking for her help in searching for his missing wife. He believes the worst has happened, yet Charley is getting some bad vibes from him. Nothing concrete, just the "one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-other" kind of wrong. So she takes the case, but doesn't really get around to telling him until much later.

Charley happens to have other problems on her plate, as always. Number one being that her father wants her to quit her PI business. Charley is astounded and a little peeved that he wants her to give up her livelihood. She also contemplates other career paths throughout the case, but mostly just for giggles! And then there is the other issue: Reyes has somehow managed to escape from prison. And he plans on finding the man who he supposedly murdered and went to prison for. Once again, Charley wants to help him, yet he doesn't want her to. They butt heads quite a bit these two, must be why they are so attracted to one another!

Darynda once again had me in a fitful of laughs! And I did lol in public this time! Luckily with just one another person who couldn't seem to understand how funny Ms. Jones can be! There was more headway into the Mistress Marigold issue from last time too. I was wondering for awhile if it would come up since MM seemed to know the instant Charley emailed her that she was in fact the reaper. There's a nice little chapter with some interesting conversation between her and Charley and Cookie.

What I found most entertaining was that this time around Charley meets the biker gang who "owns" the building Rocket lives in. She even gets up close and personal with one of the Rottweilers! The biker gang was quite surprising too, but I won't say more on that. I feel like Darynda might be setting us up for something now that we had introductions with them. Only time will tell.

The book overall was fabulous! Reading only a few segments over the weekend I quickly devoured it these past two days, enjoying every minute of it. Til the end, because you know it was the end! (Sorry for my "attitude" or "humor" when writing this review too, I think part of me channels Charley!) And it was a doozie of an ending too! Somebody died! And that's all I say! And that's not really much of a spoiler since people tend to die in this series. But again, I'm not saying who died.

Also there were other BIG events that were happening left and right in those last few pages, it was astounding! Definitely eager for Fourth Grave Beneath My Feet now! The wait won't be too long either! 

Something is definitely brewing in Charley's world and we have known for awhile too, since Reyes mentions it periodically. There is a war coming. Soon. And Charley must learn what she is truly made of if she wants to be ready for it. This is going to be fun! One of the things I enjoy about this series--and there is plenty of them--is that before every chapter is a funny quote that either comes from a t-shirt or bumper sticker, likely ones Charley has seen. And sometimes they even reflect what might happen in the chapter. Or at least a few did!

Darynda brings to you the reader another fast paced read filled with witty and lol humor, action, mystery and a few more steamy moments between Charley and the sexy son of Satan, Reyes! This is a read, no a series, not to be missed by the paranormal reader! Third Grave Dead Ahead was remarkable!


Overall rating 5/5 stars