Cherie Priest’s GRAVE RESERVATIONS is a perfectly charming paranormal mystery that features a slightly flaky but quite personable protagonist.

There's nothing that says self-deprecating like a travel agent who calls herself "ninety-nine percent worthless as a psychic." Leda Foley runs Foley's Far-Fetched Flights of Fancy. In the first chapter, she changes a client's connecting flight without letting him know in advance. When he calls her as he's rushing to get to the original gate, she tells him that if he wants to get home that evening, he must take the rebooked flight. Priest explains that Leda "didn't know why she'd changed his flight. It'd been a feeling, hard as a fist in her stomach." After being sorry in the past when she ignored those feelings, she doesn't ignore them now. And when that first flight explodes, he's thankful for her feelings.

"You will read late into the night for two reasons. You must find out which of the quirky characters is the murderer. And you will want to learn more about Grady and his sassy daughter, as well as Leda and her trusty sidekick, Niki."

In fact, Detective Grady Merritt of the Seattle Police Department decides that Leda's psychic abilities might be just what he needs to get a break on an old case that has him stumped. A father and son were murdered at a hotel months ago, and the police have no leads. Merritt approaches Leda to see if she will work with him "off the books." He doesn't tell anyone that she is "consulting" with him, and during his free time, he takes her to reinterview those involved.

For her part, Leda isn't very busy at her travel agency and isn't sure how much longer she will be able to keep it together. She spends some of her free time doing what her best friend, Niki, calls Klairvoyant Karaoke. Customers at Niki's boyfriend's bar give Leda an item that has meaning to them. She picks out a song that she feels connects to that item and then sings it. After some convincing, Leda agrees to help Grady, and Niki insists on being part of the group.

What Leda doesn't tell Grady is that she has her own reasons for saying yes. Her fiancée, Tod, was killed three years earlier in what appeared to be a random shooting. Another woman, shot with the same gun, was found nearby. Tod's assailant was never tracked down, and Leda has not gotten over his death. She feels that there needs to be justice for whoever killed him, and she's hoping that if she assists Grady on his case, he might agree to help her. As it turns out, the two just might be connected.

Solving a murder is a slow process, and while interviewing the people involved, some of them start dying. Or are attacked. And it's obviously related to the original crimes. Leda is frustrated by her inability to find the killer, and Priest's writing is truly lovely as she shares her feelings of inadequacy: "Truly, she was the most inconsequential of psychics. A Cassandra doomed to know gnarly details about the truth --- but only if they're no good to anybody, anywhere, at all. Ever."

You will read late into the night for two reasons. You must find out which of the quirky characters is the murderer. And you will want to learn more about Grady and his sassy daughter, as well as Leda and her trusty sidekick, Niki. This combination makes the whole experience just too much fun to stop. You will want to keep reading Priest's marvelous metaphors and delightful dialogue to the last drop --- or rather to the last page.

There are hints at the end that we haven’t heard the last of Leda Foley and Grady Merritt, and Priest has confirmed that at least one more installment is planned. Once you've devoured GRAVE RESERVATIONS, you'll be on the waitlist for the next book. No psychic abilities needed.