Review: Eighth Grave After Dark by Darynda Jones

Eighth Grave After Dark by Darynda Jones

(Charley Davidson #8) - Charley Davidson, Reyes Farrow and Gang

Eighth Grave After Dark on Amazon

Summary:

From Goodreads.com

With twelve hellhounds after her, pregnant Charley Davidson takes refuge at the only place she thinks they can’t get to her: the grounds of an abandoned convent. But after months of being cooped up there, Charley is ready to pop. Both metaphorically and literally since she is now roughly the size of a beached whale. Fortunately, a new case has captured her attention, one that involves a murder on the very grounds the team has taken shelter upon. A decades-old murder of the newly-vowed nun she keeps seeing in the shadows is almost enough to pull her out of her doldrums.

Charley’s been forbidden to step foot off the sacred grounds. While the angry hellhounds can’t traverse the consecrated soil, they can lurk just beyond its borders. They have the entire team on edge, especially Reyes. And if Charley didn’t know better, she would swear Reyes is getting sick. He grows hotter with every moment that passes, his heat scorching across her skin every time he’s near, but naturally he swears he’s fine.

While the team searches for clues on the Twelve, Charley just wants answers and is powerless to get them. But the mass of friends they’ve accrued helps. They convince her even more that everyone in her recent life has somehow been drawn to her, as though they were a part of a bigger picture all along. But the good feelings don’t last for long because Charley is about to get the surprise of her crazy, mixed-up, supernatural life….

Review:

Here we are eight months later; Reyes, Charlie and Osh have taken up residence of a convent. They are on the run from 12 hellhounds sent from Hell; rumor has it they can’t step onto consecrated ground.  We open with Cookies wedding to Bob, aw! And the whole gang is there.  Agent Carter, comes to Charlie with a missing kids case and she decides to take on the case despite being convent bound she’s going to need help from her whole gang for this one including Amber and Quinten. With little Beep on the way the danger is escalating. Reyes isn’t sleeping and is making reckless decisions. The departed are converging on the lawn in masses.  

This installment follows in true Charley Davidson fashion we get to enjoy everything that has made up this series so far. Charley’s trademark sense of humor has not dimmed in the slightest due to her impending motherhood or her time in a holy place. In typical fashion she has multiple cases going on at one time but with everything else it may be too much for her. She has a missing person’s case, a dead tax accountant, a dead nun, her father’s murder and the arrival of Reye’s birth parents. See, a lot going on. Add to that the fact the Lucifer wants her and Beep dead and the hellhounds, all while nine months preggers she might have bitten off more than she can chew.  The book is action packed with lots of humor and no time to get bored. Yet another great book in this widely entertaining series.