The Restorer

The Restorer (Graveyard Queen)

Amanda Stevens

Synopsis

"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." Goodreads

Amy's Adumbrations

Wow. This one of those books that comes around once in a while a makes all other books seem inferior. I adored The Restorer. It's the first in the new Graveyard Queen series, and possibly my favourite.

I found parts of  this to be really creepy, but oh so well done. The descriptions are detailed but not to the extent of verging on boring or too gruesome. Just enough to creep you out and make you wonder what's going to happen next. The Restorer is original, and grips you from the start. Every step of the way you are on a quest with the main character to find out who the murderer is. I also really appreciated how original the concept was, it's not like any ghost story i've ever read. In fact it's better.

Amelia is really sweet, but not in a goody goody way which can be irritating. I really liked her and cannot wait to read about what happens to her next. And Devlin of course.

I would recommend this book to everyone, and highly recommend at that. If you like a good strong whodunit, and ghosts this is a must.

I give this book a special rating as five bags of milkyway magic stars is not enough to illustrate the maginitude of how much I enjoyed this book. I bestow on The Restorer five bags of giant buttons.