Cherie Priest is known as a writer of horror, steampunk, and science fiction, including the Locus Award-winning novel Boneshaker. When she set out to write a mystery, she wrote a witty one set in Seattle, featuring a great cast of characters. Two thumbs up for Grave Reservations, and maybe we’ll see more of Leda Foley.

Leda Foley is the travel agent owner of Foley’s Far-Fetched Flights of Fancy. She’s also sort-of psychic. She used to ignore those strong “feelings”, but she doesn’t when she reroutes Grady Merritt’s flight. She just knows he shouldn’t get on the flight from Orlando to LAX to Seattle. As he’s running late through the Orlando airport, he’s on the phone complaining to her that he doesn’t want to go through Atlanta. She insists it’s the flight that will get him home that night, as he promised his teenage daughter, and says, “If you die and go to hell in the South, you have to stop in Atlanta first.” He realizes he might have died if she hadn’t rerouted him, as he watches the ball of fire that was his original plane.

Leda worries about everything, but fifteen years later, still vents to her high school best friend, Niki. When she realizes Grady Merritt is a cop, she worries instead of being grateful he wasn’t on the first flight, he’ll think she had prior knowledge that the plane would go up in flames. When Grady shows up at her office, she panics, only to discover he wants to hire her, with his own money, to help solve a murder.

Leda has been honing her psychic skills, doing frequent “klairvoyant karaoke” at a bar, holding items owned by customers, and picking a song that might apply to them. Now, she thinks she can try to apply those skills to Grady’s case. But, blinding white lights and occasional insights force her to conclude that Grady’s murder investigation links to a murder from three years earlier when Leda’s fiance, Tod, was shot and left for dead in his car.

Despite the number of times Leda freaks or passes out when she’s at a crime scene or working with Grady, she refuses to let go. With the support of Niki and her other friends from the bar, Leda and Grady process her insights and related clues. The humor and the supportive cast of characters is creative and interesting. At times, the investigation itself became a little messy, and Grady seemed to have an extraordinary amount of time to devote to his case from eighteen months earlier. But, if you’re looking to try a fun mystery with a lead character who is a little different, give Grave Reservations and a psychic travel agent a try.

Cherie Priest’s website is http://www.cheriepriest.com

Grave Reservations by Cherie Priest. Atria Books, 2021. ISBN 9781982168896 (hardcover), 304p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a .PDF to review for a journal.