I haven’t read any of Heather Graham’s previous Krewe of Hunters books, but it was easy enough to pick up that the Krewe are a team of FBI agents who work on crimes outside the usual and who have abilities that are more than the usual as well. Joe, the male protagonist of this book, is a former Savannah cop in the process of joining the Krewe after a ghost helped him solve his last case. Acting as a consultant at the moment, he’s sent with a more experienced Krewe agent to investigate the murder of another FBI agent in a supposedly haunted inn, in the middle of an investigation by a team of paranormal Youtube hunters. Keri, the female protag, is an author of historical crime nonfiction, who sees a ghost and discovers the murdered agent’s body at almost the same time.
Joe and Keri get off to a pretty bad start but soon come to respect each other, and there are obvious sparks of attraction flying between them from the beginning. I liked that Keri was the one to actually make a move and do something about it finally; Joe was very much a gentleman.
It’s a really interesting storyline with events of the 1920s leading to clues to the present-day crime, but the author does tend to infodump at times with what felt like entire Wiki entries being dropped into the text to explain things like the Amish Rumspringa, the Salem witch trials and other events and traditions. It got very tedious about the time that Joe was telling Keri that Benjamin Franklin was the only man to sign the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Paris and the US Constitution. Seriously? A former Savannah cop explaining that to a historical researcher? Infodump to the audience to show off the author’s knowledge at best, condescending by a male character at worst. From there on in, I practically winced every time any character said “Did you know…?”
I’m giving this one three stars. Decent storyline, an ending which was difficult to predict, but all of it made frustrating by constant infodumping. I’ve no doubt the author does do a lot of research to help make her fiction feel more authentic, but she really doesn’t need to share all of her knowledge with the audience.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review via NetGalley.