Eleventh Grave in Moonlight (Charley Davidson #11) by Darynda Jones
Charley Davidson is far more than a private investigator – which is good because she doesn’t always make a lot of money at that what with the breaking things
Of course she has a lot on her mind – including the angels stalking her every move after she kind of threatened Jehova with taking over. Then there’s that other demon god who is definitely trying to hun
And all this is before Charley truly figures herself out – hard enough for most people (especially people as… quirky as Charley) but for the god-eater, the most powerful deity out there prophecised to do so many things, enemy of god and devil both? That’s a lot for anyone to digest.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again and again, this book series is just fun. Especially Charley. She’s just so quirky, so funny and so utterly incapable of taking anything seriously. I love her little tangents. I love how easily distracted she is. I love her little asides, her silly maunderings and the general joy she manages to have all the time. I like the funny. I like that we have a protagonist who is still joyful even in the face of a lot of grim happening.
And you get lines like:
“We stood as the judge came into the room, much like one would when a kling enteed, or the president, or a male stripper when the women in front of you are really tall.”
Or her random tangents about prada.
Sometimes it is stretched a little much. Like her naming her furnishings and car is funny. Her naming everything she comes across no matter how tangentially is ridiculous. Tone it back a little
I do love the slowly developing metaplot in all its weird shininess. The originality of the gods, the different dimensions Charley’s extra special part within that is so different from anything I’ve read. The epic powers are there, but don’t divert from the general lightness and humour of the series. I like the both fear and joy of seeing Charley Davidson having more power than god while also being both genuinely good and caring while also having the attention span of a concussed squirrel.
We do have some nice complexities around both free will and Charley Davidson generally not agreeing with how Jehova is running things and what that could mean. It all fits in with her history and how little she knows of what she is and what Reyes for a big dollop of potential storylines, conflict and awesome exploration.
In some ways there does feel like there’s almost too much going on. Almost like I need to stop, restart and have a nice summary of where everyone is, where Charlie is and what we’ve learned so far. Yes, I need an info dump – so much has happened and we’ve had so much randomness on top of Charley’s hilarious but not exactly coherent commentary, a brief time to catch our breath would be nice.
It doesn’t help that may age old complaint with this series continues – there’s TOO MUCH GOING ON.
Charlie and Reyes? Sure. Charley and her godly musing? Go with it. The case of the week and the kidnapped children? Excellent, sure it’s the case of the week.
Uncle Bob and his possible future in Hell… ok, I guess.
Then we have the Amber stalking storyline. And the South American drug dealing magic cannibal.
