Daniels, Casey
DON OF THE DEAD: A Pepper Martin Mystery
Casey Daniels
Avon/Harper Collins 2006
Pb 325 pages
ISBN# 13: 978-0-06-082146-3;
10: 0-06-082146-9
Okay, this IS a murder mystery, but when the client is a ghost demanding recompense the story does fall within the aegis of Speculative Fiction. Our sleuth here is Pepper Martin, and DON OF THE DEAD is first in what I hope is going to be a series—Pepper certainly won’t run out of clients since she works as a tour guide in an historically important cemetery where there are a lot of ghosts who aren’t happy with how they died [yes, there is definitely an edge of humor to this author’s style].
Pepper has a degree in the arts and was lined up to be a society wife when plastic surgeon Daddy went and got himself locked in a federal prison for cheating the Medicare system, so Pepper lost her chance at marriage and all of her financial backing so had to go out and get…a job. The cemetery was the only place that would hire her, but when her high heel caught in a hole during one of her tours, she fell and hit her head on a tombstone—well, a mausoleum actually, the place where a Mafia don was laid to rest, except he isn’t resting! This ghost is upset that his murder was never solved [the police just smiled at his demise, not caring who gunned down Gus Scarpetti with a load of fatal bullet wounds]. Pepper doesn’t really want to solve this murder, but it sure would be nice to get rid of this ghost who is making her look a fool by following her around and being extremely irritating, and the only way to do that is to solve the crime—a fascinating crime as it turns out. Of course, the real killers do not want this case solved, so Pepper’s life suddenly gets very interesting [and dangerous].
Oh, I adored this book. Casey Daniels is definitely an author to watch [she has all the right writing elements in just the right places…but pink lipstick with orange hair? –grin].
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