Under a Blood Red Sky

For a while while I was reading Delia's Shadow, I didn't think I was enjoying the story. I mean, the idea of the story was great--young woman moves back to San Francisco a few years after her parents' deaths in the big quake, but that's not the big thing. No, Delia's biggest problem is that she sees ghosts, and now one has decided to attach itself to her until she solves the mystery of the ghost's death. It sounded cool, and when some rather grisly murders were added in, (necessitating a handsome, grieving police detective), I figured it was a can't miss.

And yet...the storyline felt clunky. We meet Delia's best friend, Sadie, who is getting married and whose mother is dying, and she accepts Delia's problem with no issues whatsoever. I could almost get on board with that, and I did love Gabe, the detective, who lost his wife in the earthquake. I think my biggest problem was the addition of Isadora, a woman who also communes with ghosts but mostly just came off as an irritating drunk. Had she been left out of the story entirely, I would probably be giving the book five full stars.

Don't be mistaken, the longer I read this book, the more I liked it. I could nitpick how the murderer was "found out", but it's a paranormal mystery so that would be pointless. Though I figured out where the story was headed, I was thrown for a loop by a big twist in the murders late in the story, and the friendship between Delia and Gabe blossomed nicely into a full on romance. While the murders were described in rather gory detail, I ended up finding myself caught up in the story and stayed up past my bedtime to finish. I'll be looking for the sequel, but hoping Dora finds a job in another country so she won't be making an appearance.

~taminator40