Author: Amanda Stevens
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Series: The Graveyard Queen # 1
Mass Market Paperback, 376 Pages
Publication: April 19, 2011 by Mira
Source: Personal Library
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My name is Amelia Gray. I'm a cemetery restorer who sees ghosts. In order to protect myself from the parasitic nature of the dead, I've always held fast to the rules passed down from my father. But now a haunted police detective has entered my world and everything is changing, including the rules that have always kept me safe.
It started with the discovery of a young woman's brutalized body in an old Charleston graveyard I've been hired to restore. The clues to the killer, and to his other victims, lie in the headstone symbolism that only I can interpret. Devlin needs my help, but his ghosts shadow his every move, feeding off his warmth, sustaining their presence with his energy. To warn him would be to invite them into my life. I've vowed to keep my distance, but the pull of his magnetism grows ever stronger even as the symbols lead me closer to the killer and to the gossamer veil that separates this world from the next.
I read The Restorer when it first came out but now, I can’t recall any of the story; so I thought a re-read was in order. The Restorer is part ghost story and part murder mystery, my two favorite things.
What I loved about The Restorer is that it took place in beautiful graveyards. Amelia, our heroine restores them for a living. She lived a quiet life of solitude and normally keeps everyone at bay as her father taught…until a body turns up in a graveyard she worked in. With Amelia’s expertise, she is called in to be a consultant on the murder investigation. But as more bodies are discovered, Amelia realizes that she’s in over her head, and two bodies may be a coincidence but three is a pattern. It is up to Amelia and Detective Devlin to find the killer before more bodies turn up dead.
The Restorer is one creepy novel and I can’t imagine it being set anywhere but the south. Charleston was the perfect setting for it. A city with plenty of rich history…and one I hope visit one day! Stevens definitely kept me on my toes as we tried to figure out who the killer was and their motives. And when both questions got answer I was quite surprised because I didn’t expect said person. So kudos for that! My only complaints was the reveal was literally in the last two chapters and everything was resolved quickly thereafter. I felt the plot/mystery was a tad too drawn out.
Amelia was Amelia. I liked her well enough as a lead but didn’t find her all that special or interesting. And as I mentioned before Amelia lived a quiet life and did everything by the books. However, that all went down the drain when she’s pulled into the investigation and gets a bi too obsessed with Devlin. I say obsessed because there wasn’t a moment that went by that she wasn’t talking or daydreaming about Devlin. It got to the point of distracting and annoying. As for Devlin, he was a walking enigma but one I didn’t care to decipher. I found their chemistry unbelievable and had a hard time connecting with both characters, which made it hard to invest into the story itself. It was a good plot and all but I never feel immersed in it or invested in the characters or the overall outcome of the book. Which is unfortunate because I remembered loving it when I first read it.
The Restorer is a good ghost mystery but I don’t think I’d be continuing with the series.
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