"Humorous romantic fantasy"
In Minneapolis when Elizabeth Anne Taylor died on her
thirtieth birthday, her mother bought the gravestone.
However, instead of resting for eternity in her plot,
Betsy got up that night as the queen of the undead. The
funeral was canceled, but her mom thinking you never waste
a good pair of shoes decides to place the tombstone on the
gravesite anyway. Thus, Betsy visits her gravesite; a
touching moment though Betsy worries she might ruin a pair
of expensive shoes. However she has no time for grieving because Betsy must
prepare for her wedding with her soulmate (do vampires
have souls?) Eric Sinclair after totally rejecting his
royal snobbiest (through three previous "Undead" tales).
However, irate female ghosts who fit Betsy's profile of
tall and blond demand she track down the serial killer who
murdered them. Betsy assumes this is easy to accomplish
as how can the culprit kill someone who is already dead so
maybe now she can go shopping without the haunting of her
dead peers. No one does humorous romantic fantasy better than the
incomparable MaryJanice Davidson. Her latest
Betsy's "Undead" thriller starts off with a graveyard
scene and turns eerier by the moment yet always retains
wit and amusement. Betsy is in rare form as she plays an
amateur sleuth encouraged by ghostly "clones" who nudge
her worse than her mom ever did. Eric is his royal
coolness except when he deals with Betsy getting into one
fiasco after another when all he wants is to share
Christmas blood with his beloved. The support cast is as
nutty as ever as UNDEAD AND UNRETURNABLE is another wacky
fun fantasy with a touch of mystery and a pinch of horror
mixed in the red looking eggnog. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted October 17, 2005
SummaryThis is how my tombstone read:
Elizabeth Anne Taylor
April 25, 1974-April 25, 2004
Our sweetheart, only resting
Only, I wasn't resting under it. I had, of course, died in
the spring. Rose in the early dawn hours the day of my
funeral and gone on undead walkabout. Since my body was
MIA, the funeral was cancelled. But my mother, who had been
in a huge fight with my dad and stepmom about what to spend
on my marble tombstone, had rushed to order the thing. By
the time it was finished, no funeral, no service, no burial.
So anyway, my tombstone had been in storage for the last
six months.
After a few months, the funeral home had politely contacted
my mother and asked what she'd like to do with it. Since
mom had the plot and stone paid for, she had them stick it
in the dirt the day before yesterday, and mentioned it at
lunch yesterday.
Jessica and Laura had been morbidly curious to see it, and
I'd tagged along. What the hell, it made for a break from
wedding arrangements and Christmas cards...
So begins the newest hilarious adventure in the life of
Betsy Taylor, reluctant Queen of the Vampires. It's
Christmas time in the kingdom of the undead (otherwise known
as Minneapolis), which is as complicated as it sounds. Betsy
isn't going to let a little thing like death and
blood-drinking stop her from enjoying the holidays, or
planning her upcoming spring wedding to drop-dead gorgeous
vamp Eric Sinclair.
But all is not merry and bright—Betsy is plagued by
ghosts who demand her help in rectifying their past
mistakes, and a serial killer is on the loose. With his
victims all being tall, blonde women, Betsy fits the profile
exactly...
With warmth, style and laugh-out-loud humor, MaryJanice
Davidson shows why readers everywhere love Betsy Taylor, and
have turned her adventures into a bestselling phenomenon.
| 
