Hello everyone!
When I originally stumbled across this book series as a member of BookSirens (you know, that online platform which brings together authors and readers for mutual benefits of free books - free reviews), I was hesitant because a "Sherlock Holmes inspired story" has been done before, and not very well.
Then I started reading Madame Chalamet and her mysteries, and changed my mind.
Byrd Nash has such a way with words and manages to draw you in with her characters, in particular in this series, but I'm absolutely going to try and get my hands on some of her other works.
I may have found another favourite, after all!
But for right now, I need to not digress.
Because things are going bump in the night, and turning uglier and deadlier.
Which is probably why this book is quite appropriately titled Haunted Grave.
Links to previous related works (so basically, all four of the first books) can be found at the bottom of the page, as per usual.
Elinor Chalamet returns in this penultimate installment of her rather dramatically intriguing saga, and Haunted Grave picks up right where Gray Lady signed off, which is she's returning home after that fateful trip to the seaside, and makes a pitstop with her ME friend Charlotte to pick up some letters she sent ahead of her.
Then, she takes off to the palace residence where she wants to deliver these to the King so he'd stop accusing and suspecting her beau Tristan (our Duke) of treason, but it takes a bit to get her there in front of him, and once she is, the King's not in the mood to play nice.
Still, with truth by her side, it's not like Elinor's going to back down, and she only really falters when Tristan pops in like a Jack-in-a-box, and things go from bad to worse because the proud idiot thinks that, for some reason, Elinor betrayed him.
What follows is actually a rather touching scene in which neither one of our two main characters gives an inch, Elinor rightly marches right up to him to give him a piece of her mind, but in doing so the truth comes out, and both eventually soften through the power of persuasion.
And oh MAN is there something to be said about clear communication that brings about a swift reconciliation! Tristan, with his head resting against Elinor's shoulder, is probably the most human we've ever seen him, and I love it.
He invites Elinor to a theater date, which she giddily accepts, and skips off to be informed there's a potential new client waiting for her, via a good friend and colleague of Charlotte's, who's apparently got a man in his place that's terrified of being buried alive (after looking dead to the world, that is). Considering Elinor's been neck-deep into the whole, who's giving people drugs to prolong their life AND make them seem dead, this is definitely right up her alley.
But the man's got stage fright, so she's off to her date, which goes swell ... until Tristan proposes, and she's completely beside herself with what kind of idiot he is.
Listen, only our Chalamet.
Anyway, they head to the play, where they meet up with Elinor's friend Jacques (who, it turns out, used to be one of the lovers of Tristan's wife) and Tristan's sister, and roughly patch things up before everything goes to hell in a hand basket.
Elinor gets a vision of the future just as a group invades the theater that turns out to be the walking undead, really, people who should have died but were given that ghastly drug to keep them just on the brink; because of her premonition, our motley crew manages to save everyone that gathered, but Elinor loses one of the four souls that she carted back from the seaside with her.
Remember the four girls that somehow took residence inside her? Well, one of them detaches and takes the souls of those who should have already departed with her, causing Elinor to faint, and Tristan to feel like he might age ten years every time this happens.
Does all this stop our intrepid Ghost Talker? Of course not, since she runs into one of the more active participants of the Brotherhood, aka a sort of syndicate really, that demands better pay for the workers and such. Their protests are quite lively, leading Elinor to have to run off so she doesn't get arrested, but she DOES learn what it is they seem to want, and that they need the ear of someone near the King to do it - which is why Elinor sends a message to Tristan, of course.
Our man doesn't stir himself fast enough, however, and her old mentor wants her to retire because apparently, there's people at the Morpheus Society that blame her for the whole fiasco from Gray Lady (mostly because they want immortality, obviously). And as for her supposed client, the one worried about being buried alive? Well, he turns up dead.
Or, sort of dead. She and Charlotte deduce he's actually under the influence of that stupid drug, so Elinor heads into the Beyond to try and bring him back, which is where she not only finds the guy, but Sergeant Dupont.
Dupont's been an interesting character in that he's been more a caricature than anything else, but here he's vibrantly alive, and Elinor figures out - with the help of her second soul, who turns out to be Dupont's sister - that someone severed his soul from his body and possessed it. Who it is though, she has no clue about, and she's got bigger problems since, after returning to the real world, someone ACTUALLY shoots the poor client dead.
Elinor manages to get to Tristan with her story, however, and things are put into motion, not the least that her beau keeps her at his house for her own safety, and there's a few more beautiful moments of the two of them just ... being, together.
I swear this somehow turned into a love story, and I am HERE for it.
They do puzzle over the fact that Elinor's client was part of a smuggling ring that was importing large amounts of guns into the kingdom, though, and finally make the connection that her late father had to have stumbled upon something, which is why they go visit his old workshop, there to unearth some journals and such which Tristan wants to take along with him ...
But alas, he needs to find his carriage first, and this leaves Elinor vulnerable to our real-life Dupont body to come try and bump her off.
Luckily, she's got her gun with her and shoots said body, but that reveals a dark specter, oily substance that possessed it - which prompts the third of the four souls she's carrying inside her to separate so that she can contain it. Who or what it was, though, is anybody's guess, but we're starting to really dig our teeth into the meat of this problem now!
Because things have been happening to Elinor at a rapid pace, and because he's worried sick but won't admit it too many times, Tristan puts her under house arrest, for lack of a better term, especially after she reveals that her old mentor is keeping Twyla away from her (her old apprentice, that is), and Twyla seems to have discovered that Elinor's father returned from the Afterlife to become a Guardian, a specter that the Morpheus Society doesn't have much information on OR believes in.
Basically, it's all very convoluted, and Elinor asks Charlotte's doctor friend - the one with that dead-undead-dead client - to hypnotise her, since she's reasonably sure there's some sort of block in her mind which prevents her from ever digging further.
Turns out, she's right, there IS a block - and apparently, her old mentor Leona put it there, which means Elinor knows something or saw something when she stumbled upon her father's murder that will blow this case WIDE open.
Unfortunately, a 'she' with no name whacks the good doctor over the head and kidnaps Elinor, dropping her in a cellar with the body of a society woman named Baudelaire, who desperately wanted to marry Tristan (which he wasn't having) and who Elinor and her Duke both suspected of being very deep into this criminal circle they're finally beginning to get to the heart to.
Only, on this cliffhanger ending, it's looking like ELINOR killed Baudelaire, so luck really is NOT on the side our Ghost Talker!
We'll just have to wait for the final part of the series to see how she manages to save herself (or if she lets Tristan do it, for once).
WHEW!
It's been some time since I was so excited for the next book in a series (Iron Flame doesn't quite count!). Byrd Nash does not disappoint! This book was an ARC provided to me by the author, so I'm doubly excited and grateful.
If you're expecting answers ... we get some. Barely (but HA I called it on Dupont). If you're expecting more questions, welcome! Join the party, we have commemorating mugs for our favourite warm beverages.
Because while the first half of this series of novellas explores the world, Elinor's job, and her circle, this second half moves decidedly away from it and focuses solely on the over arching plot of what's happening in the kingdom, Elinor's personal connection to various people, the murder of her father, and how this mystery might get resolved.
Have no fear though! Elinor is in top form, with a much more human description in contrast to her previous almost-clinical assessment as Ghost Whisperer. She admits her fears and weaknesses, and seeing her open up to Tristan is beautiful.
And Tristan! He's really stepping it up. From being simply the Duke and then the very randomly commentating "I want this woman" man when it comes to his belle, he's come forward by leaps and bounds. He, too, can now openly express his fears and shows his human side to Elinor, allowing their connection to grow (I mean, when you get to tell the man's secretary you've put him in a better mood ...).
It's a story of pushing this relationship forward, murder mysteries, random undead-dead walking around, and our two heroes becoming so strong together even Tristan's sister has come to accept the inevitable!
Who's gonna tell the mom tho 🤣😅
Overall, Haunted Grave is wonderful - but it DOES end on a cliffhanger, so be aware of that. But it delivers on plot, character development, and angst, and I can't WAIT for the conclusion!
... also, Barbier better not be on De Windt's side, or we riot.
xx
*image not mine
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