jaxgirl007's review against another edition
4.0
Chris Dolley's 'Medium Dead' is a fun, quirky departure for someone who likes a bit of the supernatural combined with mystery.
Brenda is a medium who has managed to connect up with a humdinger of a new 'person'. Brian is in the market for a new crime-fighting partner and Brenda fits the bill. They combine forces to have some very crazy adventures.
Brenda was a lot of fun: I especially enjoyed her inner voice, who seems to be a close cousin of my own annoying internal narrator. I connected with her right away and really enjoyed the areas where she was the narrator. She brings a sense of reality to a story that is pretty far-out.
Brian was a bit harder to get into and the parts where he was prominently featured often stretched the bounds of credibility to the point of silliness. These parts of the book were not the majority but did take away from the story. There was also an excessive (to me) number of typos in the book; since I have an e-book, it happens but this one seemed to be more prone than most.
Overall, if you can keep an open mind, this book was a fun, different read. At least it was not your ho-hum murder mystery procedural.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
Brenda is a medium who has managed to connect up with a humdinger of a new 'person'. Brian is in the market for a new crime-fighting partner and Brenda fits the bill. They combine forces to have some very crazy adventures.
Brenda was a lot of fun: I especially enjoyed her inner voice, who seems to be a close cousin of my own annoying internal narrator. I connected with her right away and really enjoyed the areas where she was the narrator. She brings a sense of reality to a story that is pretty far-out.
Brian was a bit harder to get into and the parts where he was prominently featured often stretched the bounds of credibility to the point of silliness. These parts of the book were not the majority but did take away from the story. There was also an excessive (to me) number of typos in the book; since I have an e-book, it happens but this one seemed to be more prone than most.
Overall, if you can keep an open mind, this book was a fun, different read. At least it was not your ho-hum murder mystery procedural.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
beth_dawkins's review
4.0
3.5 stars
Brenda was becoming reclusive after she divorced her cheating husband. Seeing ghosts doesn’t help either. Then a man ends up holding her and another man a gun point. From there things get very strange. It is not long until Brian, the male hostage, has turned things around on the man holding them. Brenda soon becomes Brain’s partner. He claims he is crime fighting medium, and Brenda agrees to help.
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this story. The best way to describe it is silly and funny. I use silly, like a cartoon can be silly. Brian uses his demon powers to take the control from the bad guys in ways that I could have never thought of, and it is done well. Imagine the bad guys killing someone, but then that someone gets back up! What do they do then? That’s what makes this good, and what Brain does is often times so unexpected you can’t help but snicker. There is a strong since of justice when a bad guy is ‘taken care of.’
After the first two test runs, Brenda is contacted by a girl ghost and they are launched into an investigation. If you think Ghost Whisperer, think again. Brain and Brenda lie, and act their way into finding out what happened to the girl ghost. In fact they find far more than just that. The story leaves a lot of questions in its wake hoping the possibility for a second book. It seems split into two secrets, the mystery of how to help the girl ghost, and Brain’s past. I was actually less interested in his past at first, but towards the very end I grew very curious.
At some points the story slowed for me. During the second test for Brenda, I felt like I got the idea, and the bad guys seemed very dense. I was less humored with it than the rest of the story. Things also slowed down when the POV would switch to Brian. He was not as humorous when I could hear his thoughts.
Medium Dead made me laugh. It was a funny-ghost- magic- crime-solving story with completely silly elements. Something about Brian reminds me of Bugs Bunny. Despite the slow spots it was pretty good. I can’t commit to saying I loved it, but it was a nice change of pace.
Brenda was becoming reclusive after she divorced her cheating husband. Seeing ghosts doesn’t help either. Then a man ends up holding her and another man a gun point. From there things get very strange. It is not long until Brian, the male hostage, has turned things around on the man holding them. Brenda soon becomes Brain’s partner. He claims he is crime fighting medium, and Brenda agrees to help.
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this story. The best way to describe it is silly and funny. I use silly, like a cartoon can be silly. Brian uses his demon powers to take the control from the bad guys in ways that I could have never thought of, and it is done well. Imagine the bad guys killing someone, but then that someone gets back up! What do they do then? That’s what makes this good, and what Brain does is often times so unexpected you can’t help but snicker. There is a strong since of justice when a bad guy is ‘taken care of.’
After the first two test runs, Brenda is contacted by a girl ghost and they are launched into an investigation. If you think Ghost Whisperer, think again. Brain and Brenda lie, and act their way into finding out what happened to the girl ghost. In fact they find far more than just that. The story leaves a lot of questions in its wake hoping the possibility for a second book. It seems split into two secrets, the mystery of how to help the girl ghost, and Brain’s past. I was actually less interested in his past at first, but towards the very end I grew very curious.
At some points the story slowed for me. During the second test for Brenda, I felt like I got the idea, and the bad guys seemed very dense. I was less humored with it than the rest of the story. Things also slowed down when the POV would switch to Brian. He was not as humorous when I could hear his thoughts.
Medium Dead made me laugh. It was a funny-ghost- magic- crime-solving story with completely silly elements. Something about Brian reminds me of Bugs Bunny. Despite the slow spots it was pretty good. I can’t commit to saying I loved it, but it was a nice change of pace.
jessica_sim's review against another edition
4.0
This is so weird that I have to leave 4 stars for sheer originality. As a fan of detective fiction this might be in my alley, but then there is a demon vigilante and a whole hoard of ghosts. The first situation they strike out on is hilariously funny but then they face a real mystery and everything goes very wrong.
There is no good way of describing the book, it might very well be an acquired taste. The only fault I see with it, is that there is no sequel despite many purposely place open endings.
There is no good way of describing the book, it might very well be an acquired taste. The only fault I see with it, is that there is no sequel despite many purposely place open endings.
tigerb99's review
4.0
For those of us who enjoy humorous fantasy writing -- a la Christopher Moore's Practical Demonkeeping -- it can be hard to find a good fix. Medium Dead fits the bill well. Brenda, the heroine, is convinced by a demon to help her fight crime in the most hilarious way possible: via convincing a killer he is a headless zombie. The situations they find themselves in are tense but packed with hastily-improvised wack-a-doo plans. I got a copy of this over at Bookview Cafe and simply bought a copy on a lark, but I certainly plan to seek out more books by the author.
wyvernfriend's review
3.0
There were moments in this book where I really enjoyed it, but there were moments where I really didn't resonate with it. Brenda can see the dead, she's a medium, and her life changes when she meets with Brian, who describes himself as a demon, but there are some questions. They get involved in some investigations where he uses his ability to shapeshift the two of them and teleport them as well.
It's not a bad story but I think it suffered from having too much stuff being thrown at the story which led to a lot of confusion, the story could have lost a few elements and been tighter, but I overall I did enjoy it.
It's not a bad story but I think it suffered from having too much stuff being thrown at the story which led to a lot of confusion, the story could have lost a few elements and been tighter, but I overall I did enjoy it.
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