Grave Dealings

Grave Report Series, Book 3

By: R.R. Virdi

Narrated by: Travis Baldree

"Quick, clean action, solid character work, and pacing. This series is worth your time." (Jim Butcher, number-one New York Times best-selling author of The Dresden Files)

Don't make deals with the paranormal. They're better at it than you, and they never play fair.

Paranormal investigator and soul-without-a-body Vincent Graves did just that - a deal made in desperation. Now it's coming back to bite him in the middle of a case.

He has 57 hours to investigate a string of deaths involving people who've made some devilish bargains. Too bad devils don't deal in good faith. It'd be easy enough, if he didn't have to deal with things such as:

• Being hunted through the streets of Queens by a dark elf with a motorcycle fetish
• Ending up the target of a supernatural hit
• An old acquaintance dragging him to a paranormal ball where he could end up on the menu

And having one of his closest guarded secrets brought to light....

Not great for a tight clock, because if he doesn't get to the bottom of this case in time, Vincent and company might just lose their souls.

Dirty deals are never done dirt cheap. And the supernatural always collect - big!

©2017 R. R. Virdi (P)2021 Tantor

Amazeballs

Killer story, great fun! R.R. Virdi kicks it up a notch with this one for sure. Can't wait for more! Highly recommend!

A Great Read

Before addressing the novel and as a baseline: Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Jim Butcher, and Tolkien are in my top 10 favorites list. If you don't like any of them, disregard this revue. Oh, and seek help, something ain't right.

I haven't read/listened to anything by this author until I started the "Grave" series. An great choice of a moniker for the main character, you can really go to town with murder mystery novels incorporating the word "grave" or even "gravely" if enough books are written. The characters are a lot of fun and, considering the genre, believable. The plot is internally consistent and not really formulaic. The starting premise is great for mystery fans. The main character is tasked with finding and removing a supernatural killer after being inserted into the dead victim's body. The victim's memory only appears in brief flashback visions. There is no clear picture of the cause of death. Not ever.

Kudo's to Audible for making the first novels membership included as freebes. I really hesitate to try an author I don't know with a cash gamble.

New case, New dangers, New friends

The third book in the series expands Graves' world twice as much as the first and second books. Not just in size but depth. New powers are acknowledged and deals are made, all while Graves and his Two partners for this case attempt to keep more people from dying. The end of the book also sets up a new, darker more powerful enemy hiding in the shadows. I look forward to the next release.

Better than most UF but left me wanting more

I wanted more out of the series. More books, more mystery, more depth, more variety. The series wasn't long enough to really world build. Non-human species were, for the most part, not developed enough. The supernaturals at the ball just got tossed in there without nearly enough material to get to know and wonder about them. I got tired of Ortiz and just didn't like her in the end. Vince was a good time but a little too much like Dresden. Speaking of, the number of times someone "arched an eyebrow" was annoying bc I always saw that as sort of a Jim Butcher trademark. Also, Vince's nature made it very difficult to feel tension in combat because Church could theoretically just revive him over and over again. And like I said, I didn't care for Ortiz, so none of the main characters being in danger really mattered to me. I was in it for the mystery only. Having said all that, this beats 90% of the trash out there. Most urban fantasy doesn't even get me thinking enough to warrant a review, so props for that.

Best

Best in the series so far. Story pace isn't as frantic as the first book. The side characters development is on par with the second book. The world development gave more insight than any of the previous parts of the series.