Audiobook Review – Second Grave to the Left (Charley Davidson, Book 2) by Darynda Jones (5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 9 hours and 30 minutes (336 pages)
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Release Date: August 16, 2011
ASIN: B005HG7AG4
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in Charley Davidson series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 5/5 stars

“If you hang around with dead people, life can get pretty complicated. Take it from Charley Davidson, part-time private investigator and full-time Grim Reaper. Complicated is her middle name. The deceased find her very sparkly. Demons find her irresistible. And one entity in particular wants to seduce her in every way possible.

When Charley and Cookie (her best friend/receptionist) have to track down a missing woman, the case is not quite as open and shut as they anticipate. Cookie’s friend Mimi disappeared five days earlier. Mimi then sends Cookie a cryptic message telling Cookie to meet her at an nearby coffee shop. The coffee is brewing, but Mimi’s still missing. There is, however, a clue Mimi left on the bathroom wall: a woman’s name. Mimi’s husband explains to them that his wife had been acting strange since she found out an old high school friend had been murdered. The same woman whose name Mimi had scribbled on the bathroom wall.

Meanwhile, Reyes Alexander Farrow (otherwise known as the Son of Satan. Yes. Literally) has left his corporeal body and is haunting Charley. He’s left his body because he’s being tortured by demons who want to lure Charley closer. But Reyes can’t let that happen. Because if the demons get to Charley, they’ll have a portal to heaven…well, let’s just say it wouldn’t be pretty.

Can Charley handle hot nights with Reyes and even hotter days tracking down a missing woman? Can she keep those she loves out of harm’s way? And is there enough coffee and chocolate in the world to fuel her as she does?”
This is the second Charley Davidson book and it was a very fun continuation of this humorous urban fantasy series! Right now the 11th book in this series, Eleventh Grave in Moonlight, is scheduled for a January 2017 release.

I listened to this on audiobook and the narrator does an awesome job. This is one of those series I would highly recommend listening to on audiobook if you enjoy audiobooks.

I enjoyed this book even more than the first book in the series. These books remind a bit of Molly Harper’s Jane Jameson series in tone, but I am actually liking this series a lot better than that one.

There is a ton of quirky humor in here and I just love Charley and her inability to keep her mouth shut or be afraid of anything. In fact there are quite a few wonderful characters in here, even the side-characters have a lot of depth and are super fun to read about.

This book is mostly investigative but there is quite a bit of action as well. I love that each of these books solves one mystery but there is also a story that continues between books involving Charley’s powers and Reyes. We learn a lot more about both Charley’s and Reyes’s powers in this book and the whole thing is getting increasingly interesting.

The only thing that I have a bit of trouble getting past in this series is the fact that if spirits can see Charley so well then why isn’t Charley constantly swamped by ghosts? I find this a bit unbelievable but am willing to let it slide because I just have so much darn fun listening to these books.

Overall I loved this book and found it incredibly entertaining. So far I am really loving this whole series (of course I am only at book 2 of 11). I would highly recommend to fans of investigative urban fantasy who enjoy some humor in their books.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge
– Audiobook Reading Challenge