Leanne Olson

The Ravenous Dead by Darcey Coates
Book 2 in the Gravekeeper series
Releasing March 15, 2022 from Poisoned Pen Press

This was such a fun book, I was completely addicted while reading it. I’d never read a Darcy Coates book before but had heard her described as “cozy horror” which intrigued me.

The Ravenous Dead is the story of Keira, a young woman with amnesia who learns that she can see and communicate with ghosts. At the start of the novel, she’s settling in a small town and helping their ghosts complete unfinished business to move on.

I read a lot of fairly dark, intense horror and so this was such a nice break. The Ravenous Dead reads like a small-town mystery novel with ghosts. The characters are quirky and fun — the dialogue completely sparkled and I laughed out loud multiple times. I immediately fell in love with the town and Keira and her friends (Zoe and Harry in particular are a blast). The overall tone was warm rather than scary, despite lots of good horror imagery (ghosts, serial killers).

I didn’t realize The Ravenous Dead was book 2 in a series, but it worked just fine starting with this one. Coates did a lovely job introducing the premise and the characters organically so that it worked as a standalone. I’m excited to go back and read the first one and I hope this series continues. There’s also an ongoing mystery of people hunting Keira that I assume will come back in future books (I’m slightly less interested in this plotline, personally).