Don of the Dead

Author: Casey Daniels

Genre: Supernatural, Mystery

Pages: 325

Series: First book in the Pepper Martin Mystery series

Series Order:

2. The Chick and the Dead

3. Tombs of Endearment

4. Night of the Loving Dead

5. Dead Man Talking

6. Tomb With a View

First Line: "I have to admit, the first time Gus Scarpetti spoke to me, I didn't pay a whole lot of attention."

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Synopsis: Pepper Martin is a former rich girl who never had to work a day in her life ... until her dad was convicted of fraud, her family's money dwindles, her mom hightailed it out of town and her ex-fiance dumps her. Now the only job Pepper can get is as a tour guide for one of Cleveland's local cemeteries.

After smacking her head on a tombstone, Pepper learns that she now has the unfortunate ability to speak to a grumpy and dead Mafia don who needs her help finding out who killed him 30 years ago.

My Thoughts: I found a few books in this series at my local library but, for some reason, they didn't have the first book so off I went to buy this first book in the series. I'm not one to read books in a series out of order (part of my Type A personality quirks) so getting the first book in this series was a must.

This book was ... good but was lacking something. I think I'm so used to this kind of book having all kinds of great secondary characters ... but this one didn't have them at all. It does have the beginnings of a love triangle which could prove to be interesting.

There wasn't a whole lot of action until later in the book but there were some really nice twists at the end that stopped me from guessing who dunnit until the end. I did find it odd that cemeteries employ tour guides ... is it just me?

Overall, a good read but I'm kind of reserving my thumbs up until I read more of the series. This book was a good start to a series but I'm hoping for more action, laughs etc in the later books.

My Rating: 2.5/5