Review - Broken Hearted Ghoul

Review

Broken Hearted Ghoul by Joyce and Jim Lavene
The First Taxi for the Dead Novel

Joyce and Jim Lavene start a new series with Broken Hearted Ghoul. It's a little darker, a little grittier, and quite compelling. Skye Mertz is not your average cozy heroine. She's a former cop and a current zombie. Not the mindless shuffling sort, but a zombie nonetheless. Skye was near death after a horrible car crash which left her husband dead when she was approached by Abe, a zombie master, who gave her an option other than death-work for him and live for 20 more years. Unwilling to see her daughter an orphan she took the deal. Now she raises her daughter, Kate, with the help of her mother-in-law, who happens to be a ghost, and drives a taxi for the dead-picking up fellow zombies whose 20 years are up and returning them to Abe.

Something is not quite right, neither with her perky new partner's family life or her job as zombies are being murdered before their time is up.Then an amnesiac sorcerer appears out of the blue, seeming almost too good to be true. Is he?

I enjoyed this not so cozy cozy. A little darker, showing that life isn't always pleasant. Sometimes you have to make tough choices and buckle down and just do what needs to be done in order to survive. I love the many layered characters-each a mystery unto themselves. Is Addie only cranky because she's dead? Or because of her son's death and the fact that she never approved of Skye? Who exactly is Lucas? A sorcerer from the past? How and why did he come to the present? What is Brandon's story and what the heck is going on in Debbie's house? I can only hope we get to peal back more layers and learn about these multifaceted characters. By the end of the book we've solved the mystery of who was killing Abe's zombies before their time, but the Lavene's leave us with more puzzles.

Joyce and Jim Lavene deliver a pulse pounding paranormal mystery incorporating a  unique and varied cast of characters. If you're looking for a cozy that's a little darker and a little different, you've come to the right place in Broken Hearted Ghoul.