Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Dead Letter Office by Kira Snyder (review)

Dead Letter Office, Parish Mail 1 

Parish Mail: Dead Letter Office (1)
By Kira Snyder



  Coliliquy

Buy it or View on Goodreads 

Summary:  "When Celia’s father is killed in Afghanistan, she moves with her mother to New Orleans, the city where her father grew up. Struggling to adjust and haunted by troubling dreams, Celia finds comfort in new friends like Tilly, a practicing witch, and Donovan, the son of a police detective. On Halloween, bizarre supernatural occurrences rock the city. Celia meets the mysterious Luc and finds a letter, over a hundred years old, addressed to her.

The paranormal repercussions continue when Celia learns that Luc is the restless spirit of a young man murdered in 1854, only able to assume solid form at night. And then, to her shock, Celia finds that the letter, which describes the suspected murder of a man in 1870, contains uncanny parallels to the present-day death of Abel Sims, a homeless veteran.

With help from Luc, Tilly, and Donovan, Celia races to solve the murder—and the mystery of the letter—using both magical and forensic clues.

This is an Active Fiction title
"Active fiction" is a new type of e-reading experience that allows the reader and the author to interact with each other and the text in new and different ways.

Kira has written Parish Mail like a TV series–there are over-arching mystery and romantic story arcs that extend between the episodes, while each episode has a smaller case that is presented and solved. Along the way, she asks you, the reader, to make several small decisions as you read. These choices do not impact the overarching storyline, but certain combinations “unlock” clues to the series’ mystery, which are embedded in the text. Kira also asks you to cast a vote at the end of the episode, to get additional feedback from her fans about their preferred love interests in future episodes."
Review:  Dead Letter Office is an interesting mystery novel. Yet this is unlike most mysteries one may have read. In this book the reader helps decide the course of action for the story. For those who enjoyed the 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books as a child (or even teen/adult), then this is the next step up!

Teenage Celia has just moved to New Orleans with her mother. Trying to settle in, getting to know her grandparents, finding new friends and grieving the loss of her father all at the same time. Celia's character is easy to connect to as she tries to fit in to her new life. She is very down-to-Earth. At least, with the choices that I made she was...

There are many opportunities to help Celia in what she does. Who her friends and contact choices are to even her dreams... every couple chapters you are given a choice to help steer her life and solve a murder mystery.

While I have only read this one, I look forward to another go at it to see other aspects of the story and to see if the ending is different. I know it cannot go way of course as there is a sequel out (that I look forward to reading) but at least I can learn more about Celia.

In addition to Celia meet a Luc, Tilly and Donovan. Tilly is a practicing witch, Donovan is a detective's son and Luc is a ghost. My guess is each choice you make might give new insight to each of these characters as well. And there is just a hint of romance between certain characters. Not too much and certainly not a detraction to the story. Just enough to add character development.

This paranormal mystery is a light, easy read. Great for teens and adults. While not very deep with how short it is, it is still lots of fun. From what I have seen, it almost seems to me more of a intro the the next book which is three times as long! I look forward to seeing what happens with Celia and her friends! 
  
Thanks to Coliloquy for sending me a copy of this book to review!  All opinions expressed in the review are my own.

2 comments:

  1. Great review. This sounds like a great paranormal book. <3

    ReplyDelete

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