Grave Reservations by Cherie Priest

The Booking Agents, Book 1

Synopsis: A psychic travel agent and a Seattle PD detective solve a murder in this quirky mystery in the vein of Lisa Lutz’s The Spellman Files and Charlaine Harris’s Aurora Teagarden series.

Meet Leda Foley: devoted friend, struggling travel agent, and inconsistent psychic. When Leda, sole proprietor of Foley’s Flights of Fancy, impulsively re-books Seattle PD detective Grady Merritt’s flight, her life changes in ways she couldn’t have predicted.

After watching his original plane blow up from the safety of the airport, Grady realizes that Leda’s special abilities could help him with a cold case he just can’t crack.

Despite her scattershot premonitions, she agrees for a secret reason: her fiancé’s murder remains unsolved. Leda’s psychic abilities couldn’t help the case several years before, but she’s been honing her skills and drawing a crowd at her favorite bar’s open-mic nights, where she performs Klairvoyant Karaoke—singing whatever song comes to mind when she holds people’s personal effects. Now joined by a rag-tag group of bar patrons and pals alike, Leda and Grady set out to catch a killer—and learn how the two cases that haunt them have more in common than they ever suspected.

Review: I’ve seen this novel all over the internet and I was curious to discover the story of this first volume. Plus Cherie Priest is an author I enjoy to read, so how could I resist her first the paranormal cozy mystery?

Leda is a rather mediocre travel agent and an even more mediocre medium. Yet her last client escaped death thanks to one of her predictions. Problem is, he’s also a cop and he’s suddenly very interested in her. Realizing that Leda has premonitions, he is determined to get her to work with him to help him solve a case. It’s a case he cares about, he hasn’t had a lead in over two years and hopes Leda can finally help him.

I had a great time with this novel and enjoyed getting to know Leda, Grady or even Nick, Leda’s best friend. Grady’s daughter was also very intriguing. There may be some length, but I was curious to know who did it, as well as what happened to Tod, Leda’s fiancé.

A nice little cozy, with a slight dose of the paranormal with Leda’s medium side.