Seventh Grave and No Bodyby Darynda Jones
Rating: ★★★★½
isbn: 9781250045645
Series: Charlie Davidson #7
Publication Date: October 4, 2014
Pages: 322
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Disclaimer: This review will be biased and unbalanced. I have love for this series and my objectivity suffers proportionally. I truly left off 1/2 star just because I’m certain there are probably flaws (all books have them) but my love for Charlie and the gang have blinded me to whatever they might be.
So a couple of days ago I was feeling rather sorry for myself. I injured my back – nothing serious, truly; just enough to put a hitch in my gitalong and make me feel mopey and old. My husband came home and put a book package on the coffee table. After I pointed out the cruelty of putting a new book on a surface that was just out of my reach (can’t bend down, of course), he handed it to me and upon opening it discovered my copy of Seventh Grave and No Body. Proof that God takes pity on me, because I NEVER get my pre-ordered books on release day; living on the tail end of the world means everything always takes days later to arrive than it does for the U.S./Europe.
Suddenly my back injury was a spend-all-day-reading free card, and boy howdy did I use it.
So in the last book prophesies about Charlie’s existence and her role in the final battle became clearer. In this one, Charlie starts finding out what she’s truly capable of. Reyes always told her she was more powerful than any other being, but Charlie always seemed to view it as rhetoric. Now she finds out it isn’t, but that she can still get her ass handed to her when she leasts expects it. Circumstances are also forcing her to confront her immaturity too; big changes are coming and she can’t keep living in the shallow end of the maturity pool. I always loved Charlie – even when her sass and snark were obvious coping mechanisms – but I quite like the (only slightly) more mature version too. She still hides behind sarcasm and smart-ass banter, but she’s also utterly selfless and has a firm grip on what’s important.
As with all the books, there are several story lines running simultaneously; human mysteries as well as mythical ones. I like this style – it keeps things moving and avoids that mid-book bogging down that sometimes happens. My only complaint: one of the story lines (a small one that has no meaning to the overall plot of this book) doesn’t get wrapped up and I wanted to know what happened. The sub-plot setting reminded me of the X-Files episode ‘Closure’ and I was sorry not to find out how it ends.
I’m not going to say more – although I could babble ad naseum – because I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone. Things happen. Big things. Suffice it to say that I loved reading it, I’m sorry it’s over, and how many days until book 8?