A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer: A Paranormal Cozy Mystery Review

Read time: 5 minutes

🎧 Listened in audio 📢 Narrated by Jaime Lamchick ⏱ Duration: 9 hours
Genre: Paranormal Cozy Mystery 🏷️ Publisher: Books on Tape and Berkley

Book Blurb:

Kathy Valence is forty-two, mid-divorce, and pregnant with her ex’s baby. She is also a modern-day grim reaper working for S.C.Y.T.H.E. (Secure Collection, Yielding, and Transportation of Human Essences), which is usually the easiest part of her life. That changes when her latest client’s soul goes missing. When she tracks down seventeen-year-old Conner Ortiz, he insists he did not die of natural causes and demands Kathy find out who at S.C.Y.T.H.E. murdered him. With only forty-five days before Conner’s soul is doomed to wander the earth forever, Kathy turns to her retired mentor, her almost-ex-husband, and Conner himself for help in the wildest case of her career.

Let’s talk about the book:

It took a bit getting into the headspace of the story here. I started reading the book thinking Kathy Valence is a supernatural character. But no, S.C.Y.T.H.E. is just as human as any of us, but just like secret services, they need to keep things under wrap. Not tell anyone what they do, keep their projects secret, and so on. Once I understood this is what is happening, it became easier to follow the story. (A heads-up to anyone starting to read the book with my thought-process too.)

Keeping the blurb aside, I really enjoyed the relationship between Kathy and Connor. Yes, it was right there for the taking, and it is a cliched story progression, but still, I felt victory bells going in my heart that Connor got some love before he “passed on.” And Kathy was also changed by their relationship, which is typically how love works. It changes you for the better.

I am conflicted about the relationship Kathy has with Simon. It is intended to be shown as a “real thing,” but I felt Kathy to be a bit toxic for Simon, the way she was withholding affection because she didn’t feel she deserved him, but ending up hurting him more than herself. There were many instances in the story where I felt like screaming at Simon to run away from this wild lady, but I guess I get the appeal. Aren’t we all drawn precisely to those things that are meant to hurt us? By the very end, nothing changed my mind about it, but I hope it ends well for them.

The office politics was too typical, that it makes you, a regular reader, feel if the Grim Reaper is dealing with this office politics, what am I complaining about when Karen in Finance keeps sidelining my requests.

The ending … could have been better.

After all the hype up to the mysterious murder, it turned out to be a pretty convoluted reason. I get the rationale behind driving the story to make readers expect one thing and then sidetracking it for a surprise finale, but I wasn’t entirely sold on this surprise. It was too quick, too soon, and too all over the place to feel like a neat wrap up.

Of course, I am going to continue with the series and see where S.C.Y.T.H.E. employees will go from here (as every story appears to be based on a different character in S.C.Y.T.H.E.), and just because the ending didn’t work for me doesn’t mean the story didn’t. The writing was beautiful, the characters relatable, and the setup was likable enough to garner curiosity. Let’s see how the next one fares.

Would I recommend it?

A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer had me completely off balance for the first several chapters, and once I stopped expecting Kathy to be anything supernatural, the story finally clicked into place. The Kathy and Connor thread genuinely got me, and I will die on the hill that Simon deserves better even if the book wants me to root for them anyway. My one real gripe is the ending itself. It wrapped up too fast and too convoluted to feel earned after all that build up. Still, the writing and the characters were strong enough that I am absolutely continuing the series.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

5 Books to Read Next

• A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Cheating Death by Maxie Dara
  If you want to stay in the S.C.Y.T.H.E. universe, book two follows a different reaper entirely and keeps the same blend of workplace comedy and real stakes.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• Death and Other Occupational Hazards by Veronika Dapunt
  This is the one I kept comparing Grim Reaper’s Guide to while reading. It leans harder into the paranormal and gives Death herself the lead role.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
  Same mix of grief, humor, and a love story that should not work on paper but does, this time from a ghostwriter who does not believe in romance anymore.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones
  For a spicier, snarkier version of the grim-reaper-with-a-day-job premise, Charley Davidson’s debut delivers plenty of both.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen
  Different corner of the death-industry genre, but the same found-family warmth and dry humor that made Kathy’s world so easy to sink into.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

Bringing the Reapers to the Comments Section

What do you think, would you be able to buy into a grim reaper working a desk job before finding out the truth, or would the twist have thrown you off too? And be honest, are you Team Simon-run-for-your-life, or do you get the pull toward Kathy anyway?

Book Links:

Want to purchase this or any of your favorite books while supporting a local bookstore? Consider purchasing using the sites below. These sites work with independent local bookstore owners to fulfill your book orders. #SupportLocal

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy
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