Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Book Review: Wicked Deeds by Heather Graham

Title: Wicked Deeds
Author: Heather Graham
Source: NetGalley, for an honest review

Goodreads Summary:

Eager to start their life together, historian Vickie Preston and Special Agent Griffin Pryce take a detour en route to their new home in Virginia and stop for a visit in Baltimore. But their romantic weekend is interrupted when a popular author is found dead in the basement of an Edgar Allan Poe-themed restaurant. Because of the mysterious circumstances surrounding the corpse, the FBI's Krewe of Hunters paranormal team is invited to investigate. As more bizarre deaths occur, Vickie and Griffin are drawn into a case that has disturbing echoes of Poe's great works, bringing the horrors of his fiction to life.

The restaurant is headquarters to scholars and fans, and any of them could be a merciless killer. Except there's also something reaching out from beyond the grave. The late, great Edgar Allan Poe himself is appearing to Vickie in dreams and visions with cryptic information about the murders. Unless they can uncover whose twisted mind is orchestrating the dramatic re-creations, Vickie and Griffin's future as a couple might never begin...

My thoughts:

Ah, a return to the Krewe! I took a break from Graham and the Krewe of Hunters series for a bit, and it was worth it. I enjoy this world of FBI agents who can communicate with the spirit world. Every book is a bit of old and new - new agents, a new setting, a new mystery, matched with agents from previous books, favorites of the readers. Making these books comfortable, familiar, yet still interesting.

This book focuses on Baltimore, deaths that are straight out of Poe, and even on Poe himself. I have always loved Edgar Allen Poe, and I thought that Graham wound his story and mystery surrounding his last days through this book very well. Different theories as to his whereabouts, what he was up to, are bounced around between some of the characters, and I found them fascinating. Why was he wearing different clothes, clothes that weren't even his at the time of his death? We will never actually probably know the truth, although fiction writers and historians both try their best to explain what might have happened all the time. If only they had a psychic like Preston on their team! I thought the theory that Graham came up with (which might actually be a popular theory already, I just don't know) sounded pretty plausible, based on the facts that her characters presented. I love when books inspire me to go digging around in history, to read more about something else - and now I am all about googling and reading about Poe.

Anyway, back to Wicked Deeds. Besides the Poe mystery talk, there is a killer on the loose killing people Poe style. And by that, I mean, literary-ly from his works. (lol sorry) It kept me guessing, and took us to some spooky places, including an old mansion complete with its own cemetery, out in the middle of nowhere. In a storm, no less! Does the power go out? You bet it does. Did it give me the creeps right before bed? You bet it did.

The Krewe gets to work solving this mystery, which has many players and many stories and backgrounds. Just like the Scooby Doo gang, you know they'll catch that villain.

1 comment:

  1. I've been so curious about these Heather Graham ghost books from the beginning. I keep riding the fence on whether or not to read them. Reading your review, it reminds me of the Felix Renn novellas from Ian Rogers. I love that premise of a detective that deals with the supernatural.

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