Oh boy.

Since there was such a long period between reading the last Calliope Reaper-Jones novel, Serpent's Storm and this one. I totally had forgotten about my feelings toward Serpent's Storm and actually thought it was all right. Why I thought this I can only blame on sporadic temporary insanity. How to be Death is the fourth installment to the Death's Daughter series.

Calliope is starting her duties as the C.E.O. of Death Inc. Such duties include hosting the All Hallows Eve Eve Masquerade and the Death Dinner. Also, she gets possession of the coda to all things about being Death. Callie, being Callie, manages to screw all of these up when the book is stolen from her room.

A dead body of someone not important is left in its stead. More unimportant people die as Callie frets about Daniel and his new beau. Then, the paranormal equivalent of Columbo and Monk comes in and solves the preposterous case. That was it. Even though, Marcel, "the Ender of Death," could have killed Callie during the 24-hour period of no magic but decided to show up in the end and do a lot of talking.

I'm going to finish the series. There is only one left. I am under no more allusions that this series will get better. It won't. The idea is a good one. Death as a corporation? That's a pretty awesome idea. But the characters suck major balls. They are horrible. Callie is one of the worst protagonists I read. The only consistent aspect about Callie is her lack of growth. She radiates with immaturity. The only good thing about How to be Death was that it was a very fast read. ( )