First Grave on the Right

Charley Davidson, Book 1

By: Darynda Jones

Narrated by: Lorelei King

Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

First Grave on the Right is the smashing, award-winning debut novel that introduces Charley Davidson: part-time private investigator and full-time Grim Reaper.

Charley sees dead people. That's right, she sees dead people. And it's her job to convince them to "go into the light." But when these very dead people have died under less than ideal circumstances (i.e., murder), sometimes they want Charley to bring the bad guys to justice. Complicating matters are the intensely hot dreams she's been having about an Entity who has been following her all her life...and it turns out he might not be dead after all. In fact, he might be something else entirely.

This is a thrilling debut novel from Darynda Jones, an exciting newcomer to the world of paranormal romantic suspense.

First Grave on the Right is the winner of the 2012 Rita Award for Best First Book.

Keep chilled: spend some more time with Charley Davidson.

©2011 Darynda Jones (P)2011 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“Sexy, sassy . . . Jones's characters, both living and dead, are colorful and endearing. . . . Cheeky charm . . . sarcastic wit.” —The Associated Press

“Jones's wickedly witty debut will delight aficionados of such humorous paranormals as Casey Daniels's Pepper Martin Mysteries and Dakota Cassidy's Accidental Friends series.” —Booklist (starred review)

“Fast-talking Charley's wicked exuberance and lust for life will appeal to fans of MaryJanice Davidson and Janet Evanovich and maybe fill a hole for those mourning the recently canceled Ghost Whisperer.” —Publishers Weekly

The only bad part is it ended!

Omg I loved this book so much! I laughed my head off, I was on the edge of my seat, and the sarcasm was chefs kiss! This was such a fun book!

Thoroughly entertained!!

Loved this first book of the series. Entertaining and kept my interest. Will listen to whole series now

Funny and well thought out

I loved the sarcasm and humor, the plot was well thought through and compleletly original, the characters are well developed. This story left me searching for the next book. It was like a Janet Evanovich book with a slightly supernatural twist.

Sexy, witty and suspenseful!

Love her sense of humor and ability to keep us both entertained and on the edge of our seats.

Not my favorite

All the wonderful reviews were the incentive to buy the book and I loved the TV series "Dead Like Me", so I was hyped to really enjoy it. I'm still trying, but halfway through and sometimes it is all I can do NOT to turn it off and move on to another book. It tries too hard to be clever, and comes off like a cheap supernatural romance novel. Maybe I will love it by the end, but somehow........I doubt it.

Very, Very Funny Book, Suffered from My Bad Timing

This was often a side-splittingly silly book. It was totally unbelievable but that didn't matter. The plot was convoluted and difficult to follow but that didn't really matter ...much. The romantic hero was totally unappealing because he was either dead, Satan or nothing but grey smoke and it is hard to make any of that sexy. It is just creepy.

But the snappy writing, the quick one-liners and the silly naivete of the heroine made all of those faults totally unimportant. And the whole book was written so tongue-in-cheek that those really weren't faults. They were part of what made the whole package so fun to read.

Because of who the characters were, the story could have so quickly gotten bogged down into philosophical discussions of good versus evil, spirit versus soul, etc. The author could have easily pulled an "Anne Rice" on us. But she didn't. She kept it light, fluffy and entertaining.

Her secondary characters were well written and strong enough to not wilt away in the glow of the main character. I loved her best friend, the various apparitions in her life and especially, Rocket.

The narration was great

My only complaint is that the bits of information that actually moved the plot forward, that explained what was going on and ultimately, what would lead you to read the second and third books in the series were so buried under the pithy one-liners and double entendres, that if you blinked you missed them. I finished the book not sure I had a clue about what actually happened in the plot. And wishing she had focused more on certain traits of Charley, like the fact she had perfect memory of everything that happened from the second she was born. But this might have been a timing problem on my part. I'm not sure I was up for quite so much humor in my current read when I sat down with this book. And if you are not in the mood for good-natured silliness, the book can be unfulfilling. Like eating your favorite flavor of Ben & Jerry's when all you really wanted was toast. But that is not the author's fault.

Stephanie Plum meets the Undead

With Lorelei King Narrating, it's hard to go wrong. And she made this already entertaining book even better. The author achieved a wonderful balance between funny, vulnerable, sexy and dangerous for the heroine, Charley Davidson. I can't wait for the next book in the series to come out!

Looking forward for more

Just as recommended this book was a really fast read. The main character Charley's voice is pleasant, funny, likable. As it often happens, these heroines sometimes tend to be too smart mouthed to the point of becoming irritating, but she keeps the balance very well and stays on the amusing side. Other characters, except for her step mother and sister, are a lot of fun, quirky and likable. Especially the banters between her best friend and her little helper "Angel" and others were nice.


What I didn't really get was her mysterious lover Reyes. I think there just wasn't enough time to get into it in the first book I suppose, cause I was hoping for more Garret since he was more developed character in this book! I am hoping for more of the same fun in the next book too!

Oh and as usual the narrator was excellent!

Ridiculous

I did not expect this book to be a literary masterpiece, but I also didn't expect it to be so awful. The language and sentence structure were immature, ideas weren't fully developed, and the dialogue between characters was painful to listen to. It was embarrassingly bad.

At first I thought the narrator was ok, but as the book went on I realized that she was over-dramatizing which actually made the book worse.

If you still think you want to check this out, at least buy the book. Maybe giving the story your own narration would help, though no one can fix ridiculous immature writing.

Great series

Love this series. The humor in it is great and the storyline interesting. The narration is also well done.