Book 96, 2016
Good thing I didn't have to work today, because I stayed up until after 1am to finish reading Grave Memory. It's the third installment in Kalayna Price's "Alex Craft" urban fantasy series.
Alex convinces her friend and fellow grave witch, Rianna, to open their own agency called Tongues for the Dead. They plan to use their ability to raise shades as a means of solving crimes. Before their agency is even up and running, Alex and Rianna come across the scene of a recent suicide. Alex can see the man's ghost, and he is adamant that he would never kill himself, as his pregnant wife is due to give birth soon, and he would never abandon them.
Alex uses her connections at the Nekros City morgue to access the man's shade, and she learns that it has no memory of the past three days, but it does recall witnessing another, horrific suicide. When Alex questions the prior suicide's shade, she discovers eerie similarities: this man also had no memory of the prior three days, and he also witnessed a public suicide. Alex's investigations uncover an entity, which she begins calling 'the rider', that possesses a person, then jumps to another body at the time of the first host's death. Since she is the only one who can see this rider, Alex knows it's up to her to stop it.
The story raced along at a rapid pace. Not only was Alex dealing with her investigation into the rider, but her personal life is in shambles. Her Fae lover, Falin, has been forbidden by the Winter Queen to speak to her, and the soul collector, whom Alex knows only as Death, has been avoiding her. Alex's fae friends urge her to attend the quarterly revelry, so that she can choose a Fae court to align herself with. In addition, Alex comes under the scrutiny of an MCIB agent who is convinced that she has been raising ghouls, and Alex is alienating some of the police officers whom she previously shared a rapport with.
Favorite lines:
♦ "I want chocolate so bad, I may kill the next person I see with a Snickers bar."
♦ I had my heart in a Ziploc bag and that wasn't the worst part of my day.
Five stars!
*****
Alex convinces her friend and fellow grave witch, Rianna, to open their own agency called Tongues for the Dead. They plan to use their ability to raise shades as a means of solving crimes. Before their agency is even up and running, Alex and Rianna come across the scene of a recent suicide. Alex can see the man's ghost, and he is adamant that he would never kill himself, as his pregnant wife is due to give birth soon, and he would never abandon them.
Alex uses her connections at the Nekros City morgue to access the man's shade, and she learns that it has no memory of the past three days, but it does recall witnessing another, horrific suicide. When Alex questions the prior suicide's shade, she discovers eerie similarities: this man also had no memory of the prior three days, and he also witnessed a public suicide. Alex's investigations uncover an entity, which she begins calling 'the rider', that possesses a person, then jumps to another body at the time of the first host's death. Since she is the only one who can see this rider, Alex knows it's up to her to stop it.
The story raced along at a rapid pace. Not only was Alex dealing with her investigation into the rider, but her personal life is in shambles. Her Fae lover, Falin, has been forbidden by the Winter Queen to speak to her, and the soul collector, whom Alex knows only as Death, has been avoiding her. Alex's fae friends urge her to attend the quarterly revelry, so that she can choose a Fae court to align herself with. In addition, Alex comes under the scrutiny of an MCIB agent who is convinced that she has been raising ghouls, and Alex is alienating some of the police officers whom she previously shared a rapport with.
Favorite lines:
♦ "I want chocolate so bad, I may kill the next person I see with a Snickers bar."
♦ I had my heart in a Ziploc bag and that wasn't the worst part of my day.
Five stars!
*****