Eighth Grave After Dark: A Novel

Wow! I would have given it 5 stars but I am not sure I like where this is and has gone. Interesting for sure. I love Darynda Jones / Charlie books... I just hope they don't get ruined. Another author I liked ruined her series and I've never been able to get back into her books. Please stay on track with Charlie and the humor and everything. (I don't want to give anything away). Can hardly wait for the 9th book. These are a must read! Warning - they are habit forming!!! :)

Kind of enjoyable. The snark, as always is there, but this story is a little convoluted. I feel sorry for Charley, this chick just can’t get a break, bad and worse are always happening to her. This so far is my least favorite of the series. Charley has to live in a old convent (sacred ground), has Beep, takes a trip down below, loses Beep, mentally breaks and ends up in Sleepy Hollow, NY, where a really bad and previously dead guy resides. And then we have the “God’s”, turns out Charley is a God, there are ghost gods, seven gods, etc. my head is spinning.

Beep has arrived! And in typical Charley fashion, all plans made for her arrival have been twisted, torn, tossed in the air and challenged – and you couldn’t want it any other way! Picking up eight months after Seventh Grave and No Body, Charley, Reyes and Osh have moved to an historic abandoned convent, on hallowed ground, to keep Charley and Beep safe from the hellhounds. While the early part of the book is relatively slow moving and without a ton of the frenetic action we’ve come to expect, the opportunity to breathe as the story unfolds will be a welcome, if not necessary one, in the grand scheme of things. With Charley having gone against Reyes’ wishes and hired her own PI to find his birth parents, Cookie and Ubie’s wedding – a perfect setting despite her step-monster Denise being omnipresent and desperate to ‘apologize’ for her mistreatment of Charley for her entire childhood, her father appearing to leave a warning, a departed nun appearing regularly and Charley’s FBI friend Kit asking for help with a missing teen, everything is pretty much normal, if quieter than the usual. This won’t last long, however, as Charley notices Mr. Wong has relocated and is now in what they are using for a living room, the departed in her bedroom closet won’t speak – only wail, and there are increasing numbers of departed just standing about in the yard. And while the friction between Osh and Reyes is still there, they aren’t banging one another’s heads together, Reyes isn’t sleeping, and there are moments, frequent moments, when Reyes disappears and Charley can’t get him to explain who (or what) he is planning. With the countdown on Kit’s missing girl coming to a head, Cookie and Bob aren’t on their pre-honeymoon honeymoon but working instead, the people interested in, or a threat to Beep and Charley seem to be increasing exponentially. And then, when following Reyes, and the departed nun, things go left in spectacular, Charley-trademark fashion as a well, two bodies and Beep’s arrival all converge. Not expecting that Denise would step up and help Charley through labor, save Beep from strangulation and bring us to the point of meeting the child destined to be the downfall of Lucifer – just eighteen hours of stasis later and Charley is back to her old tricks, now with Beep in tow. Introducing her to her father, the door that won’t open revealing its secrets, a quick jump through hell to bring forth answers about a missing girl, a threat to Cookie and Amber, the return of the MC club and a showdown between Reyes and Charley that was overshadowed by a big bad – one determined to end Beep and give Charley nightmares about Denise for as long as she lives. Strangely enough, it is Mr. Wong and the hellhounds, along with Osh and his knowledge of her name, her true name, that provides all the difference in this final battle (for this book) and sending Reyes into a tailspin as everyone has no idea just what, or where, Charley will turn next with the new information. Unfortunately, the battles for supremacy aren’t yet over with, and Beep is still threatened and must be protected, but the choices are truly heart wrenching, only the secret that Charley has held for weeks against the wishes of Reyes, could be the only answer. And when a previously departed returns and seems to be involved at the core of the battle, the story takes a twist that is utterly unexpected, and the addition of Reyes’ perspective as a sort of “epilogue’ has the benefit of giving us a few more steps along the path to the conclusion. I received an eBook copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.