MEMENTO MORI
From the Haunted New Orleans series, volume 1
by Rayvn Salvador
A skeptical private investigator encounters romance, hauntings, and a potential serial killer when she returns home to New Orleans in Salvador’s series-starting paranormal thriller.
Hanlen Arbor is a young, queer private investigator who’s still getting over the trauma of her best friend’s murder, which she’s trying to solve.When she returns home from Texas to New Orleans, she expects an uneventful, short trip. That changes when she meets Deveraux “Dev” Glapion, a charming paranormal investigator and Vodou priest of Haitian descent who’s the host of the network TV series Haunted New Orleans. Dev’s show is launching an investigation into Arborwood, Hanlen’s ancestral home, but she doesn’t believe in supernatural phenomena. Complications arise in Hanlen’s murder investigation, bringing her and Dev closer together. The two realize they have much in common despite their drastically different worldviews—specifically, they both still grieve over murdered loved ones whose cases are unsolved. New killings merge the pair’s investigations, and they use their disparate skills to their advantage while navigating their growing attraction to each other. Salvador tells the story from Hanlen and Dev’s alternating first-person perspectives, allowing readers to experience the inner lives of both characters. For the first half of the book, this intriguingly presents two very different views of the supernatural events—one of a skeptic and the other of a true believer. However, as the characters’ beliefs shift, so does the distinctiveness of their voices, eventually making it difficult to determine who’s speaking without context clues. The character development lacks complexity, and a major reveal is hampered slightly by an over-the-top red herring. Still, Salvador’s melding of paranormal romance with clear-cut horror elements is impressive. Arborwood is an excellently crafted haunted house, and this setting, along with the steamy romance, allows for a thoroughly satisfying romp.
An often engaging paranormal tale with spice and scares.