Book Review: Grave Memory by Kalayna Price

Grave Memory
Author: Kalayna Price
Series: Alex Craft (Book 3)
Publication: Ace (July 3, 2012)

Description: When the dead need to talk, Alex Craft is always ready to listen…

As a Grave Witch, Alex solves murders by raising the dead—an ability that comes at a cost, and after her last few cases, that cost is compounding. But her magic isn’t the only thing causing havoc in her life. While she’s always been on friendly terms with Death himself, things have recently become a whole lot more close and personal. Then there’s her sometime partner, agent Falin Andrews, who is under the glamour of the Winter Queen. To top everything off, her best friend has been forever changed by her time spent captive in Faerie.

But the personal takes a backseat to the professional when a string of suicides occur in Nekros City and Alex is hired to investigate. The shades have no memory of the days leading up to their brutal endings, so despite the very public apparent suicides, this is murder. But what kind of magic can overcome the human will to survive? And why do the shades lack the memory of their deaths? Searching for the answer might mean Alex won’t have a life to remember at all…

My Thoughts: In this third Alex Craft adventure, Alex has to find a way to stop an entity that steals bodies, uses them to eat a great restaurants, hire hookers, and live in posh hotels, and then causing them to commit suicide. She gets involved when hired by one of the victims' wife who doesn't believe that her husband could have done those things.

Of course, that isn't all that is going on. Alexis losing her grip on the glamour that she didn't even know she had and is starting to glow. She goes to her estranged father for help and learns some things she didn't know about her family history. She'd already met a king in faerie who acknowledged her as his niece and met a brownie who said he helped raise her. These aren't things Alex wants. She would much prefer to be a human grave witch and private investigator.

Her love life is also in a state of chaos too with Falin being under the thumb of the Winter Queen and him telling Alex that she can not trust him. Meanwhile, Death is breaking rules for Alex including exchanging life force with her and taking her to the Mender who deals with injured soul collectors. Their latest action have led to an either/or choice for Death that Alex isn't willing to accept. She is willing to go to great lengths even lose her own life to give him better options.

This is an entertaining urban fantasy series with great characters. It seems each episode opens up more opportunities for Alex but the opportunities could cost her what she holds the most dear. I can't wait to see what happens next for her.

Favorite Quote:

It said something about my life when a heavily armed official accused me of causing magical havoc and I had to wonder which incident she meant. 

I bought this one Dec. 22, 2013 and am rereading it. You can buy your copy here.