I apologise if I've been slow on the review front but there have been so many things to keep me away from reading that I literally had to wrestle my life to the floor and grab it in a headlock just so that I could spend some time reading this book. I had started it much earlier and from what I read, everything seemed good, so far. So what can I say? I really liked this book.
A.J. Locke has a quick, flowing style that keeps you absorbed all the way through, with wit and humour scattered throughout. It is fast-paced, with just enough slow (and heated) moments to keep you grinning like a satisfied woman. I really liked the concept of Affairs of the Dead. It is set in a world much like ours except that people acknowledge the existence of ghosts. That ghosts exist is accepted completely and unquestioningly by normal, ordinary people and that there is an actual department that polices the supernatural. The A.O.D. or Affairs of the Dead department employs witches and necromancers who can commute with ghosts and round them up if necessary. The importance of their work comes to light when ghosts remain in our world. Ghosts must pass on to the next world and when they don't, they manifest into beasties – senseless monsters that attack normal people.
Selene Vanream is a stubborn, rebellious necromancer who works at the A.O.D. She willfully breaks rules, goes out of her way to help ghosts, and she is hiding a dark secret, among others. Not only is Selene a necromancer who can see ghosts, she is also a reanimator – she can bring the dead back to life. Anyone discovered to be a reanimator must be stripped of all their powers which renders the person senseless, for life. So Selene has a lot to hide.
There is enough excitement in her personal life with the sexy Micah and her boss, Andrew. Selene is an interesting character in that I did not find her very likeable. She is a bit too stupid (stupidly headstrong) at times, she is selfish and in contrast to how much she sacrifices herself for her work, she lacked compassion for Ethan's plight. A.J. Locke developed her faults pretty well but I felt she could have worked a little more on Selene's better side – I would like to have felt more compassion for the protagonist. Saying that however, Selene is definitely not a wooden heroine.
The fact that there is a dangerous individual who can bump a soul out of a living person and take that body over for himself lends to a very intriguing and suspenseful story. Ethan is the poor teenager who finds his soul displaced and under Selene's protection. While trying to find the individual responsible for poor Ethan's fate, Selene learns more about her powers as a reanimator and at the same time, buries herself in more trouble. Affairs of the Dead has a good plot, it is written very well but I have to admit, I found the ending a little unsatisfying or rather, incomplete. While things were mostly resolved, I had a feeling I was left in a tower built from twigs that was about to collapse. I suppose I'm wondering, "Is the ending sustainable?" I'm guessing that A.J. Locke is saving it for the sequel which I'll definitely be reading.