Cemetery Girl, Book 3 - Haunted

And so the story of the Cemetery Girl has reached its conclusion with this third volume of the graphic novel series by Charlene Harris and Christopher Golden (and beautifully drawn by Geraldo Borges).  Calexa Rose Dunhill has been through quite a bit since she first woke up in that cemetery, and now her story comes to an end as her past is revealed and the identity of the person(s) who is trying to kill her comes to light.

Haunted is the perfect title for this book (graphic novel), as Calexa has been haunted not only by the past she can't remember, but by the death and violence that lay in her wake as she tries to escape from the unknown villains who are after her.  After the revelation in the last book that she had inherited the home of Lucinda Cameron and now has a place to live.  She has also made friends with Kelner and his son Mason, who are about the only individuals she trusts.  Which is probably wise on her part, as it appears that it's not just one, but two different factions that are searching for her...

Harris and Golden open up Calexa's past as readers discover that her father has been searching for her, but someone has been hindering his private eye every step of the way.  Someone does not want Calexa ... or Charlotte, as we discover her is her birth name ... found, and will go to any length to ensure that she stays away - even if that means killing her and anyone who gets in their way!  The mystery that has been building over the past two books now reaches its culmination, and all the secrets in Calexa's past are laid bare.  But the question is - once she learns the truth, will she go back to being the Charlotte she doesn't remember, or will she stay in her current life as Calexa?

This final volume provides a very satisfying conclusion, wrapping up the story nicely, answering all the questions, and even opening the door for Calexa (Charlotte) to find a little love and happiness in her life.  No easy cop-outs, no sudden revelations, no thread left untangled.

The art, by Borges, only adds to the life of the story, and it keeps pace with the prose, moving the reader from panel to panel, and page to page, with the ease of watching a television show or movie. This speaks volumes as to Borges' talent not just as an artist, but also as a storyteller, that his panels flow and give moment, and in no way seem two-dimensional.

It's almost a shame that this is the end of Cemetery Girl. On the one hand, it is nice to have a complete story; but at the same time, I want to see where Calexa and Mason will go from here, and what happens next!

RATING: 10 chocolate-filled donuts out of 10 for revealing the truth about a haunted girl without a past - and providing a superb and very satisfying conclusion to a terrific story!

Cemetery Girl, Book 2 - Inheritance

It's funny.  I used to never really like trade paperbacks or graphic novels.  I have always been a huge fan of buying and reading the individual comics in series.  But, as I'm sure pretty much everyone knows these days, graphic novels, trade paperbacks, and hardcover collections are the "in" thing.  The fact that Barnes and Noble has literally three or more rows of nothing but graphic novels testifies to that.

In recent years, however, my mind has slowly been changing.  A friend introduced me to The Walking Dead comic by giving me the first two graphic novels to read (which collected the first 12 issues of the ongoing comic series).  I found that I enjoyed reading the book this way.  Since then, I have purchased a lot more graphic novels, many of them original concepts and stories, some of them collections of ongoing series.  Definitely one of my favorites is a relatively new book, Cemetery Girl.

 Written by two very prolific authors, Christopher Golden and Charlaine Harris, the story centers around a young girl who wakes up in a cemetery with absolutely no memory of who she is or how she came to be there.  She doesn't know who left here there, nor why anyone would want her dead.  She adopts the name Calexa Rose Dunhill (Dunhill is the name of the cemetery), and she quickly discovers that she has the ability to communicate with and see the spirits of the dead!

In the first graphic novel, Calexa helps solve the murder of a young woman buried in the cemetery.  She also befriends the caretaker of the cemetery, Kelner, as well as an eldely woman who lives across the street from the cemetery.  This second book picks up pretty soon after the conclusion of the first story.  Calexa is staying the night with Lucinda Cameron, the elderly woman across the street, when a masked intruder breaks in and murders Lucinda.  The killer escapes, and Calexa is once again left alone.  Until Lucinda's spirit appears, asking Calexa to help her uncover the identity of her killer so she can rest in peace.

With only 112 pages of story and art, the story is fast-paced, but not so fast that we don't get character development or an amazingly well-plotted story.  Interspersed within the tale is a new flashback to Calexa's past, as well as a mysterious stranger that seems overly interested in finding Calexa.  The art is by Don Kramer, a very VERY talented comic book artist who also happened to draw one of my favorite comic series, the Justice Society of America, for a number of issues.

This is definitely a series that I would recommend not only to comic book fans, but to regular readers of both mysteries and general fiction stories.  The only bad thing about this series of graphic novels is that they only come out one book per year (although, let's face it, I would much rather have quality over quantity any day of the week!).

RATING:  10 gravestones out of 10 from the perfect mix of mystery, suspense, and just all-around great storytelling.