Beautiful Dead: Phoenix
3Q 4P J SDarina's mission continues in this fourth and final installment of the Beautiful Dead series, featuring teens who cannot move on in death until the mystery surrounding their deaths is solved. Darina, who can see these dead teens, all former classmates, has until the one year anniversary of their deaths to find out who killed them. If she fails, then they fail to move on and wind up in limbo. She has succeeded in her past three efforts, but time is running out for the most important of the four, her boyfriend Phoenix. He was stabbed to death in a fight that broke out in a gas station. Who did it? Why is his older brother so angry and his younger brother getting deeper and deeper into the drug scene? His grieving mother blames Darina and will not talk to her about her sons. Her own mother and step-father want her to get over her grief and get a life. They do not understand why she drives out of town to visit the abandoned farm at Foxten Ridge, but that is where she meets the "Beautiful Dead" and Hunter, their overlord, who directed her past quests and is watching over her in this one.While this novel can be read as a stand-alone, readers will no doubt enjoy it more if they read the first books first. This series is a strange take on the "I see dead people" theme, but the mystery is compelling enough to keep readers turning pages until the satisfying resolution. This will appeal to Twilight fans for its tormented romance, and supernatural fans for the paranormal powers of the Beautiful Dead.-Bonnie Kunzel.