Abracadaver is the seventh and currently, the last book, in the series Esther Diamond by Laura Resnick. It was published 2014 by DAW and I listened to the audiobook by Graphic Audio, narrated by a full cast. This is a paranormal, mystery and comedy with a hint of a romance on top. As this is the last book currently out, I will give a review of the entire series at the end but first, let’s quickly go through this book.
Esther Diamond is back, the story taking place pretty much directly after The Misfortune Cookie, making this story connected to that one. The first chapter pretty much is a summarization of the book before this. It starts off with Esther getting job at a television series she has worked on before while the story in Chinatown is far from over as a dead body is reanimated when Esther’s boyfriend, the cop, Lopez’s partner walks close to it. That along with Max familiar sensing danger from the cop, they soon realize that a demon is on the loose, feeding on misfortune and depression. A thing the area has in spades, as broken hearts and deaths ravage the people in the place, including Esther herself.
The scientist, makeup artist and part timer in a funeral home, John is back and wants to court Esther who is still hanging onto Lopez while Lopez is trying desperately to remove himself from Esther who just don’t seem to get the hint. Neither of them seems to do it and by now it has just become sad. Considering that there is a strong focus on Esther and Lopez relationship, I am just tired of the two. I was tired of them four books ago and it hasn’t become better for every time they get together and then break up in the same fashion in every book.
Considering that the book was about depressing subject such as broken hearts, obviously, this book didn’t have much humor. It was lighthearted but didn’t make me chuckle. That means that in order for me to continue to be interested, I must focus on the mystery and it wasn’t much of a mystery. We find out early on what it all was about and it wasn’t any culprit or twist. The author solved the lack of mystery by throwing in drama such as Lopez being accused of causing a mafia boss to kill himself and his minion goes after him. Which really didn’t go over well with me since it felt like a side story meant to distract from the story itself, or the lack of it.
I liked the characters well enough, but are sincerely tired of Lopez and Esther’s relationship. You have to adore it and actually want to know what will happen to it in order to enjoy this book. As you can imagine, I didn’t. Overall I guess it wasn’t a bad book, but it wasn’t a good one either. Lacking any substance, like the author wasn’t sure what to write about. I cannot give it more than a 5 out of 10. Maybe the next book will be better, but I won’t read it.
The entire series is entertaining, but has a large overall problem and that is that the author didn’t seem to know what the series should be. The first book was clearly focused on humor and quirky character. The mystery coming second, and the romance being pretty none existance. The books after it focuses on the mystery and lore, while the comedy and romance came in second and the two last book focuses on the romance while the mystery and comedy took a backseat.
That means that if you start reading the first book, you most likely continued because of the humor, but that is not the focused on the next couple of books so you will be disappointed. If you though the first book was okay but lacking, then the enhanced mystery in the next couple of book might interest you but the last two books will bore you since it is about the romance, not the mystery. If you want the romance, then just read the sixth and seventh book. The romance in all the books before that is lackluster at best. Being summed up to, they making out, then arguing to finally one of them saying they shouldn’t see each other. Repeat for each book.
Changing the formula can keep a series interesting but changing the identity of the book will only make the readers who liked it feel betrayed. The once who stayed was either like me, liking the lighthearted tone and the characters, or just have far more patience than the average person. At least according to my opinion. Frankly, I’m not sure if the author knew what she wanted to do with this series, as she keep reusing plot points and jokes from the previous books, but maybe that is just me.
I cannot give it an extremely low rating, since I still liked the books, but I won’t continue reading it if a eight book comes out and I won’t reread them. Overall, I think the series got a rating of 6 out of 10. It is a lighthearted read, funny sometimes, thrilling other times while having annoying moments and lackluster mysteries is some of them. It is hard for me to recommend it, mostly because each book seem to target different people and considering that for each book it seems to be less and less readers, I would say that it is an obvious problem. I liked the first, third and fourth book most and would recommend them for those who is considering reading this series.
With Kind Regards
Senefer.
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