Something Deadly This Way Comes by Kim Harrison

Note: This review contains no spoilers of Something Deadly This Way Comes, but does contain spoilers of the previous two books in the series. The first book is Once Dead, Twice Shy a review of which  can be found here and the second is Early to Death, Early to Rise a review of which can be found here.

Something Deadly This Way Comes is the third and final book featuring the dead teenage heroine Madison Avery by Kim Harrison. After enjoying, although not being blown away, by the first two novels in the series- which began with Once Dead, Twice Shy and was followed up with Early to Death, Early to Rise- both of which I listened to on audiobook, I was definitely intrigued to see what Madison's final adventure would be like. Would she finally regain her body? Would things work out with her and Josh? What about Heaven's Plan? Although the subsequent books work well on their own, Harrison still provides plenty of questions to be answered in Something Deadly This Way Comes.

Like the first two books, Something Deadly This Way Comes takes place in a very short time period with the plot revolving around one major quest. In this case, Madison has a vision of a teenage girl who loses her will to live once her brother dies in a fire. So Madison takes the two reapers willing to give her controversial views a chance, Nakita and Barnabas, with her to try to change Tammy's path so that her soul and life are both safe from Dark and Light Reapers. At the same time, Madison hasn't forgotten about the fact that she's, well, dead, and she'd love to have her body back so she can have a normal relationship with her boyfriend Josh, as well as a normal life in general. But things aren't as simple as Madison wants to believe, and could it be that her role as Dark Timekeeper is her true fate? Either way, Madison has some big choices to face in this final installment of the Madison Avery Trilogy.

A major thing I noticed almost immediately upon beginning Something Deadly This Way Comes is that a lot of the squeaky clean language that got on my nerves in the first two books, Madison swearing by saying things like "puppy treats on the rug!" is a lot less annoying on paper than it is listening to a perky narrator read it out repeatedly. Either that or I kinda just skimmed over the unnecessary slang with the printed novel. I also feel like you finally really get a chance to know Madison's two heavenly sidekicks in this novel. Nakita and Barnabas both have very interesting back stories and I was glad Harrison gave us a glimpse of them, they are both strong characters who could definitely stand on their own. Nakita is fun and spunky with an emotional side, and Barnabas has a little bit of a fatherly flavour, while remaining conflicted over where his alliance really lies.

Although there isn't a lot of development with regards to Madison herself, I did appreciate that in Something Deadly This Way Comes Harrison had finally gotten all the explanations about how the Dark/Light Timekeepers work out of the way and could just focus on the story. Like the previous two books, this is a short, easy read, but I found myself far more involved in the story than I had been earlier in the series. That said, while I won't be reading the Madison Avery Trilogy again in the future, Something Deadly This Way Comes was definitely my favourite book in the series and does a good job wrapping everything up as well as having a storyline that I thought was the best of the books. Though it was not exactly right for me, I would definitely recommend these books to parents trying to find some clean paranormal with a touch of romance and a dash of adventure for their young girls.

Release Date: May 24th 2011
Pages: 256
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Source: ARC From Publisher