Well, if you can ignore all the murder, this was a fun read. Anne Frasier writes easy to read stories and this one has southern witch doctor bits thrown in ... all in all a good read. ( )

This novel is billed as the beginning of a Gothic/zombie/paranormal series featuring homicide detective Elise Sandburg working in Savannah. However it is a series that I won't be following. This book was just not my cup of tea and we nearly parted company early on when the author was trying to "educate" me about zombieism and voodooism. There were police procedural aspects which I thought were the book's salvation but in general I struggled, although I got to the end.

I must acknowledge though that my feelings are not echoed by other exuberant reviewers on Amazon. ( )

David Gould is Savannah Homicide Detective Elise Sandburg's new partner. He's former FBI and is on the run from a personal tragedy; his ex-wife drowned their son in the bathtub so that her new boyfriend would accept her. Now, she's in prison and David is trying to build his life in Savannah and deal with his grief. He's been under psychiatric care and on drugs which are having a effect on his job performance.

Elise Sandburg is a Savannah native who was found abandoned as an infant in one of Savannah's many cemeteries. She has always believed that her father was a noted conjure man. She played a bit with magic when she was a teen but has now settled in as a homicide detective. She's divorced and has a thirteen-year-old daughter named Audrey who prefers to live with her father and stepmother.

The latest case the pair are working on has to do with bodies sent to the morgue who aren't actually dead. There's a new drug called TTX that mimics death. However, superstitious Savannah is spreading rumors of zombies. Since a number of the victims are associated with Black Tupelo - an "escort service" run by a Gullah woman named Strata Luna who is known for her own conjuring, the rumor is flourishing.

Elise and David are looking for a more realistic reason for the deaths but find themselves getting more involved than is probably good for them with Strata Luna and the magical parts of Savannah.

I enjoyed the plot of this story. The characters were also intriguing people. I loved the setting and the magical elements. The narrator did a great job with the voices and accents. ( )

David Gould is Savannah Homicide Detective Elise Sandburg's new partner. He's former FBI and is on the run from a personal tragedy; his ex-wife drowned their son in the bathtub so that her new boyfriend would accept her. Now, she's in prison and David is trying to build his life in Savannah and deal with his grief. He's been under psychiatric care and on drugs which are having a effect on his job performance.

Elise Sandburg is a Savannah native who was found abandoned as an infant in one of Savannah's many cemeteries. She has always believed that her father was a noted conjure man. She played a bit with magic when she was a teen but has now settled in as a homicide detective. She's divorced and has a thirteen-year-old daughter named Audrey who prefers to live with her father and stepmother.

The latest case the pair are working on has to do with bodies sent to the morgue who aren't actually dead. There's a new drug called TTX that mimics death. However, superstitious Savannah is spreading rumors of zombies. Since a number of the victims are associated with Black Tupelo - an "escort service" run by a Gullah woman named Strata Luna who is known for her own conjuring, the rumor is flourishing.

Elise and David are looking for a more realistic reason for the deaths but find themselves getting more involved than is probably good for them with Strata Luna and the magical parts of Savannah.

I enjoyed the plot of this story. The characters were also intriguing people. I loved the setting and the magical elements. The narrator did a great job with the voices and accents. ( )

Play Dead was the perfect book to pick up when I was starting to go through a reading slump. There is just something about Anne Frasier's books that never fails to draw me in. I've read two other books in her Jude Fontaine mystery series (and loved them both) so was excited to give one of her other series to try. Her books always seem to have darker elements to them which never fails to make them hard to put down. In this book, Frasier includes voodoo elements that give the book a darker and creepier edge. I really liked Elise as the main character. There is just something that I enjoy about mysteries featuring strong female main characters where there is a hint of mystery to the main character. With this book, there are questions of Elise's parentage as she was adopted as a baby and there are rumors that she is the daughter of a well known root doctor. I also really liked the storyline featuring Elise's new partner and his past history. This was such a fast-paced mystery because there were these other smaller side mysteries going on. My attention was engaged the entire time and that was exactly what I needed when I had been feeling so slumpy previously. I especially liked the ending of this book because I thought that I had it all figured out but the author managed to surprise me. I'm really looking forward to picking up the second book in this series in the very near future!

Overall, I really enjoyed my time with this book! I'm glad that I finally decided to dive into Frasier's backlist a bit and am really looking forward to reading that second book soon. At this point, I basically plan on reading everything and anything that she writes because I've loved everything that I've read by her so far! I would recommend this book to fans of atmospheric mysteries and to those readers who enjoy darker police procedurals. Highly recommended!

Bottom Line: Another really great read by an author that is fast becoming a favorite of mine!

Disclosure: I read this book through Kindle Unlimited. Honest thoughts are my own. ( )