Living With the Dead by Kelley Armstrong

Title: Living With the Dead
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Release Date: August 25, 2009
Pages: 560
Genre: Urban Fantasy

Best Book Quote: “. . . the greatest impediment to justice is prejudice.”

I was only going to read for a minute when I picked up Kelly Armstrong’s book Living with the Dead. I have always been a fan of her stories but believe me when I say that this book is not a “just gonna read for a minute” kind of book. Once I started, I had to find out how it ended.

The main character, Robyn Peltier, is a public relations consultant who becomes accused of a crime she didn’t commit – the murder of her annoyingly irritating celebrity employer. She finds her boss shot dead and to all outward appearances it looks like she did it. But when she goes on the run to save her life it leads to her immediate guilt in the eyes of the police and more importantly, the gorgeous lead investigator, Detective Finn. Luckily for Robyn, she finds help from her best friend Hope Adams (a half-demon) and Hope’s werewolf boyfriend, Karl. Apparently, Robyn has inadvertently became involved in a supernatural mess that could kill both her and her friends. But this doesn’t stop them in their mission to prove Hope’s innocence.

I was surprised to find that I was so quickly hooked on this story since I usually avoid the “innocent person accused of a crime” plotline. It’s a testimony to Kelly Armstrong’s great writing style that I kept on reading.

This novel has pulse-racing writing combined with Armstrong’s usual wit – a combination I’ve really come to like. The author makes Robyn a sympathetic character that you connect with and pull for throughout the book. Comic relief is provided by the ghost of Robyn’s husband who was killed but has come back to help her; the twist is that he can only be seen by Detective Finn! Whether you like “innocent girl wrongly accused” storylines or not, give Living with the Dead a try. If I hadn’t, I would have missed out on a really fun read.