Heather Graham has always been a guilty pleasure of mine, so when I got the chance to review the ARC for Waking the Dead I jumped on it. Heather has published so many books, all with easy-to-read, intriguing ghost / mystery stories. This one felt a little different to me, but I still enjoyed the mystery. This was a partner to her other Cafferty/Quinn story, but they do not need to be read together to understand the situation.

Likes:

The storyline was intriguing. A painting seems to be blamed for murdering individuals who were in procession of the painting. The storyline took place in New Orleans (like many of Graham’s stories) and also parts of Switzerland.

I like both MC, Danielle Cafferty and Michael Quinn. They have interesting personalities and are so different, but fit well together. I also liked the side characters in the story, especially Hattie. Hattie was a feisty, well-off older lady with a hilarious personality.

The villain, the painting “Ghosts of the Mind” was so amazing in detail. I really thought the painting had to be real from the amazing description, but alas, from multiple google sessions, I cannot seem to find that it is a real-life painting or artist.

Gripes:

Most of Graham’s stories were more believable, but this one was definitely far-fetched. I was not so much upset with the plot, but it was outside what I have read from Graham before.

They bounced around a lot to catch the villain, as who the villain was, what to do with the painting, ect. I just felt that more research into the killer should have been done initially. It is hard to write this without spoiling, but it was like an episode of House were they get the wrong thing ten times before they finally figure out the right thing. In all normal circumstances, they patient would be dead before that could really happen!

For more reviews visit
A Flurry of Ponderings