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Medium Dead

by Chris Dolley (Goodreads Author)

3.48 of 5 stars 3.48 · rating details · 25 ratings · 14 reviews

Medium Dead is a fun urban fantasy chronicling the crime fighting adventures of Brenda – a reluctant medium – and Brian – a Vigilante Demon with an impish sense of humour. Think Stephanie Plum with magic and a dash of Carl Hiaasen.

Brenda Steele is smart, funny and out of her depth. A Vigilante Demon called Brian wants her to find murdered spirits and help him track down t...more

Kindle Edition, 291 pages

Published (first published May 28th 2011)

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Aug 27, 2011 Sally906 rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: paranormal, mystery

Brenda lives a boring life by choice. Ever since she found her husband and best friend in bed together she keeps herself aloof from the world, and her overbearing family. What she can’t ignore are ghosts - they pop into her home from time to time to complain about being dead.

As MEDIUM DEAD opens Brenda is settling down to spend the summer watching soap operas on TV when a ghost tells her that a serial rapist/killer is on his way to kill her and not to open her front door. Almost immediately the...more Brenda lives a boring life by choice. Ever since she found her husband and best friend in bed together she keeps herself aloof from the world, and her overbearing family. What she can’t ignore are ghosts - they pop into her home from time to time to complain about being dead.

As MEDIUM DEAD opens Brenda is settling down to spend the summer watching soap operas on TV when a ghost tells her that a serial rapist/killer is on his way to kill her and not to open her front door. Almost immediately there is a knock on Brenda’s front door an innocuous man called Brian is standing there asking to use her phone as his car has broken down. It turns out that Brian is a hostage and Brenda ends up opening the door to let Brian and his captor, the serial rapist/killer, in. Once in her house a series of bizarre events occur which leaves Brenda gobsmacked, Brian reveals he is a demon help bent on revenge - a sort of paranormal vigilante. Brian asks Brenda to be his partner, he needs a medium to find murder victims or him to avenge. Brian takes Brenda on a trial run to stop some bank robbers who have a heap of hostages that need to be rescued, what followed was hilarious slapstick that had me week with laughter despite the dangerous situation. Their next case, and the focus of the book, is not so funny. The ghost of a young girl turns up and says she is called Sacrifice but knows nothing else - where she is who she is and who her parents are. The hunt is now on to find her murderer, and gets more urgent as more young girl ghosts turn up and say they too are called Sacrifice.

There is lots of humour and some very poignant moments, overall a good balance. There were a few loose ends left over at the end of the book, which leads me to hope that there will be a sequal. I enjoyed the book and would read a second one if there is one. I did get this copy from librarything, when I receive free copies I make no guarantees to right favourable reviews - this one I honestly enjoyed, just a little bit different.(less)

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Jul 03, 2011 Bookmom rated it 3 of 5 stars

Brenda has been living a dull existence. Years ago she'd found her best friend in bed with her husband, and her world fell apart. She now lives in a small town far from there, mostly keeping to herself and doing her best to ignore the ghosts that temporarily show up from time to time.

Everything changes when she's recruited by a Vigilante Demon who is looking for a new partner. He needs her to tell him when the ghost of someone murdered shows up so together they can mete out a twisted form of jus...more

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Jun 25, 2011 Paranormal Haven rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviews-by-beth-guest-reviewer

3.5 stars

Brenda was becoming reclusive after she divorced her cheating husband. Seeing ghosts doesn’t help either. Then a man ends up holding her and another man a gun point. From there things get very strange. It is not long until Brian, the male hostage, has turned things around on the man holding them. Brenda soon becomes Brain’s partner. He claims he is crime fighting medium, and Brenda agrees to help.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this story. The best way to describe it is sill...more 3.5 stars

Brenda was becoming reclusive after she divorced her cheating husband. Seeing ghosts doesn’t help either. Then a man ends up holding her and another man a gun point. From there things get very strange. It is not long until Brian, the male hostage, has turned things around on the man holding them. Brenda soon becomes Brain’s partner. He claims he is crime fighting medium, and Brenda agrees to help.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this story. The best way to describe it is silly and funny. I use silly, like a cartoon can be silly. Brian uses his demon powers to take the control from the bad guys in ways that I could have never thought of, and it is done well. Imagine the bad guys killing someone, but then that someone gets back up! What do they do then? That’s what makes this good, and what Brain does is often times so unexpected you can’t help but snicker. There is a strong since of justice when a bad guy is ‘taken care of.’

After the first two test runs, Brenda is contacted by a girl ghost and they are launched into an investigation. If you think Ghost Whisperer, think again. Brain and Brenda lie, and act their way into finding out what happened to the girl ghost. In fact they find far more than just that. The story leaves a lot of questions in its wake hoping the possibility for a second book. It seems split into two secrets, the mystery of how to help the girl ghost, and Brain’s past. I was actually less interested in his past at first, but towards the very end I grew very curious.

At some points the story slowed for me. During the second test for Brenda, I felt like I got the idea, and the bad guys seemed very dense. I was less humored with it than the rest of the story. Things also slowed down when the POV would switch to Brian. He was not as humorous when I could hear his thoughts.

Medium Dead made me laugh. It was a funny-ghost- magic- crime-solving story with completely silly elements. Something about Brian reminds me of Bugs Bunny. Despite the slow spots it was pretty good. I can’t commit to saying I loved it, but it was a nice change of pace.
-Beth (Guest Reviewer)(less)

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Dec 07, 2011 April rated it 4 of 5 stars

I received this book through www.librarything.com and it's early reviewer's program. I really didn't know what to expect when I received this ebook. I started the book yesterday and finished it in one day. It was very engaging. The characters were interesting and the story was fast-paced. There were parts that were thrilling, especially the beginning. The off the wall antics of Brian help lighten the story. I enjoyed traveling along with Brenda and Brian, especially the dinner with the parents s...more

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Jun 27, 2011 Beth Dawkins rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

3.5 stars

Brenda was becoming reclusive after she divorced her cheating husband. Seeing ghosts doesn’t help either. Then a man ends up holding her and another man a gun point. From there things get very strange. It is not long until Brian, the male hostage, has turned things around on the man holding them. Brenda soon becomes Brain’s partner. He claims he is crime fighting medium, and Brenda agrees to help.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this story. The best way to describe it is sill...more 3.5 stars

Brenda was becoming reclusive after she divorced her cheating husband. Seeing ghosts doesn’t help either. Then a man ends up holding her and another man a gun point. From there things get very strange. It is not long until Brian, the male hostage, has turned things around on the man holding them. Brenda soon becomes Brain’s partner. He claims he is crime fighting medium, and Brenda agrees to help.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this story. The best way to describe it is silly and funny. I use silly, like a cartoon can be silly. Brian uses his demon powers to take the control from the bad guys in ways that I could have never thought of, and it is done well. Imagine the bad guys killing someone, but then that someone gets back up! What do they do then? That’s what makes this good, and what Brain does is often times so unexpected you can’t help but snicker. There is a strong since of justice when a bad guy is ‘taken care of.’

After the first two test runs, Brenda is contacted by a girl ghost and they are launched into an investigation. If you think Ghost Whisperer, think again. Brain and Brenda lie, and act their way into finding out what happened to the girl ghost. In fact they find far more than just that. The story leaves a lot of questions in its wake hoping the possibility for a second book. It seems split into two secrets, the mystery of how to help the girl ghost, and Brain’s past. I was actually less interested in his past at first, but towards the very end I grew very curious.

At some points the story slowed for me. During the second test for Brenda, I felt like I got the idea, and the bad guys seemed very dense. I was less humored with it than the rest of the story. Things also slowed down when the POV would switch to Brian. He was not as humorous when I could hear his thoughts.

Medium Dead made me laugh. It was a funny-ghost- magic- crime-solving story with completely silly elements. Something about Brian reminds me of Bugs Bunny. Despite the slow spots it was pretty good. I can’t commit to saying I loved it, but it was a nice change of pace. (less)

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Aug 27, 2011 Debbie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebook, fantasy, urban-fantasy, review-copy, lter, 2011

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this ebook from the author through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers Program

I couldn't help comparing the premise to the TV show Medium because I have been marathon-watching that on Netflix. But other than the main character seeing dead people every so often, there really wasn't much else similar. Which was a good thing. This book was fast, amusing, and at times almost-but-not-quite over-the-top.

I really liked Brenda, the reluctant crime-solving medium, who wou...more

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Jul 18, 2012 Deirdre rated it 3 of 5 stars

There were moments in this book where I really enjoyed it, but there were moments where I really didn't resonate with it. Brenda can see the dead, she's a medium, and her life changes when she meets with Brian, who describes himself as a demon, but there are some questions. They get involved in some investigations where he uses his ability to shapeshift the two of them and teleport them as well.

It's not a bad story but I think it suffered from having too much stuff being thrown at the story whi...more

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Mar 01, 2012 Linda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nook-book

This is a fun urban-fantasy read about a divorcee who is trying to put her life back together again, after discovering her husband in bed with another woman. She's moved, taken another job, and is trying to deal with her over-bearing mother & sister. However, things are complicated because suddenly ghosts start appearing in her home! When she receives a warning from one of them, and a vigilante demon shows up, her life takes a turn...for the worse or for the better is yet to be seen!
I would...more

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Dec 30, 2011 Jennifer Stevenson rated it 5 of 5 stars

This guy is hilarious! British humor, my favorite kind. The heroine's life is already in the toilet...and then she finds out that the dead talk to her. And THEN she finds out she's been chosen by a Vigilante Demon to be his bird-dog, so he can go after murderers and make their punishment fit their crimes. He thinks he's funny, and he likes to wing it, and he's not too worried about putting her in danger, either. Good thing she's got some cojones, even if she's never actually used 'em before. Fun...more

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Apr 30, 2013 Diane rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013-books

Brenda Steele sees dead people. She doesn't know why and wishes they would leave her alone. Into her house comes Brian, who seems to be more of a demon than a ghost and he's got a mission. He's determined to track down the people that kill others and needs a medium like Brenda to help him. She would find the ghost/spirit and glean the story from them and together they must find the killer who was never caught and punished and make them pay. The last medium came to a sticky end and Brian needs a...more

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Dec 30, 2011 Nathaniel ΘΣ rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: librarything-early-reviewer, owned, supernatural, 2011books

I got this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers programme. It took me quite a while to read, mainly because it was an ebook and without a physical copy sitting around reminding me it needed reading, I kept forgetting about it. I put it on my phone so I could read it on there but as I had other books on the go, it kept getting put on a back burner. Which is why it took me two months to even start it and then another two months to actually read it.

In brief, it’s about a medium who is coe...more I got this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers programme. It took me quite a while to read, mainly because it was an ebook and without a physical copy sitting around reminding me it needed reading, I kept forgetting about it. I put it on my phone so I could read it on there but as I had other books on the go, it kept getting put on a back burner. Which is why it took me two months to even start it and then another two months to actually read it.

In brief, it’s about a medium who is coerced by a demon into helping him investigate crimes. Brenda is not overly happy with her ghost-seeing powers and is completely downtrodden by her family, particularly her mother and as a result, she has an acerbic inner-Brenda who crops up far too often to be funny. Brian is the Vigilante Demon which appears to be a self-appointed title. He’s shown to be rather tricky from the first moment when he appears in Brenda’s house and loses his head. Literally. There are several mentions of him having some mysterious past which I couldn’t quite see the point of. Isn’t it enough that he’s a demon? It made even less sense to have this brought up when there was no real conclusion to it other than a throwaway line that doesn’t get explained adequately.

I found the book rather confusing and disjointed which probably wasn’t helped by the amount of time between reading sessions. Brenda and Brian spent a huge chunk of the story being sidetracked on a different case that didn’t seem to be linked to the one they were supposed to be investigating. Again, the tenuous connection between the two wasn’t adequately explained and it just seemed like the middle of the book was a complete waste of time. When the case is finally resolved towards the end, it ends up raising even more questions which aren’t addressed at all. The book itself seems to stop dead before the plotline is finished which would indicate there’s to be a sequel. Presumably the questions raised in this book will all be answered in there but it just left me going ‘whuh?!?’ too much to be enjoyable.

Most of the antics that Brian gets up to are rather slapsticky and I thought they were totally ridiculous and unrealistic. At the start, they were mildly amusing but when they carried on in that tone throughout the rest of the book, it began to get annoying and unfunny. There were also a lot of scenes that were quite dark and violent - I remember one moment early on in the book where a character is casually threatened with rape from a serial killer rapist character which made me rather uncomfortable. The book seemed to switch between being silly and over the top, and dark, as if it couldn’t decide which way it wanted to go and tried to be both.

I think this book could do with a good editor to help it focus on either silly or dark, and cut out some of the sidetracking. It would also help with the pacing which was all over the place. That said, I don’t think I’ll be reading the sequel because at the end, I just didn’t care enough to find out what happened.(less)

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Sep 01, 2011 7hir7een rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: r2r, own, read-in-2011, paranormal, fantasy, stars-3, indie

★★★½ -- I have to admit, during the first few chapters of the book, I thought this was going to be one of those books I would regrettably have to leave unfinished )something that I loathe to do). The beginning of the book is ridiculously far-flung, but what really turned me off about it was the gore and vulgarity. However, I gave the book a chance, because I felt it was only fair. I'm pleased to say that after Brenda and Brian start working together, the story redeemed itself. Witty and entertai...more

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Sep 27, 2011 Sonia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: giveaway

"When Brenda saw her first ghost she thought she was going crazy. The final destination in a year-long descent into hell that had seen her marriage, her career, her home of six years – all disappear in the messiest of messy divorces.
Other wives got alimony, Brenda got dead people. And to make matters worse, her lying, cheating ex-husband hadn’t been one of them."

Il miscuglio di generi diversi probabilmente è il difetto maggiore del libro. Una specie di commedia dark/urban-fantasy/crime che riesc...more

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Jul 20, 2011 Meli rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed Medium Dead. It was a funny and different book from what I am used to reading lately. I loved Brenda's character though some of her choices were questionable at times like "are you serious?" lol However, I did enjoy the book and am glad Mr. Dolley sent it to me for early review. Thanks!

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Aug 08, 2011 Leslie rated it 2 of 5 stars

There are parts of this book that I really enjoyed. The adventures were funny and thrilling. My only issue is that it was kind of disjointed and I had a hard time connecting with the characters.

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Apr 27, 2013 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Mar 26, 2013 Releanna rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2013

Mar 14, 2013 TheBookSmugglers marked it as ana-ebooks

Feb 06, 2013 Anne Seebach rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Jan 19, 2013 Peter John marked it as to-read

Jan 15, 2013 Stephanie Robert rated it 4 of 5 stars

Dec 30, 2012 Claire rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle-books

Dec 25, 2012 Jackie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Oct 27, 2012 Lisa Pedersen added it

Aug 26, 2012 Patricia Burroughs marked it as to-read

Shelves: tbrs-i-own

Aug 24, 2012 Katharine Kimbriel marked it as to-read

Feb 27, 2012 Lorena marked it as to-read

Feb 22, 2012 Kathy marked it as to-read

Dec 28, 2011 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars

Oct 01, 2011 Amamur marked it as to-read

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About Chris Dolley

An English author, a pioneer computer game designer and a teenage freedom fighter. That was back in 1974 when Chris was tasked with publicising Plymouth’s Student Rag Week. Some people might have arranged an interview with the local newspaper. Chris invaded the country next door, created the Free Cornish Army and persuaded the UK media that Cornwall had risen up and declared independence. This was...more

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