The Prophet (The Graveyard Queen) [Mass Market Paperback]

Amanda Stevens (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 24, 2012 | Series: The Graveyard Queen

My name is Amelia Gray.

I am the Graveyard Queen, a cemetery restorer who sees ghosts. My father passed down four rules to keep me safe and I've broken every last one. A door has opened and evil wants me back.

In order to protect myself, I've vowed to return to those rules. But the ghost of a murdered cop needs my help to find his killer. The clues lead me to the dark side of Charleston—where witchcraft, root doctors and black magic still flourish—and back to John Devlin, a haunted police detective I should only love from afar.

Now I'm faced with a terrible choice: follow the rules or follow my heart.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Stevens serves up a sultry tale full of lush descriptions of Charleston, S.C. and the surrounding countryside, as well as interesting tidbits about cemeteries and gravestones... [a] creepy, atmospheric tale." --Publisher's Weekly on The Restorer

"This is paranormal romance done well."

-New York Journal of Books on The Restorer

"The beginning of Stevens' Graveyard Queen series left this reviewer breathless. The author smoothly establishes characters and forms the foundation of future story lines with an edgy and beautiful writing style. Her story is full of twists and turns, with delicious and surprising conclusions. Readers will want to force themselves to slow down and enjoy the book instead of speeding through to the end, and they'll anxiously await the next installment of this deceptively gritty series."

-RT Book Reviews on The Restorer, 4.5 stars "Top Pick"

"I love this book! Amanda Stevens' The Restorer gives the reader a fascinating character-who interacts with more fascinating characters! Ms. Stevens has managed the difficult feat of combining charm and chills." -New York Times and USA TODAY Bestselling Author Heather Graham

"Stevens makes her MIRA debut with this taut, disturbing story. The characterizations are vivid, and it's got a lovely twist in the tail. Not for the squeamish!"

-RT Book Reviews on The Dollmaker

"Faced paced and plotted with spectacular precison and guile, this is undiluted suspense at its very finest. Nervous readers should read it in full daylight."

-RT Book Reviews on The Devil's Footprints

"Stevens' swiftly-moving, intricately plotted story has oodles of twists and chills-plus a jaw-dropping shocker of an ending. This is good stuff indeed."

-RT Book Reviews on The Whispering Room

About the Author

Amanda Stevens lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband and a black cat named Lola. She is an avid reader, a fledgling taphophile, and a collector of Alfred Hitchcock memorabilia. When she’s not writing, she likes taking road trips through the South. You can find her online at www.amandastevens.com

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Mira; Original edition (April 24, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0778313395
• ISBN-13: 978-0778313397
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #192,792 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Amanda resides in Houston, Texas, where she is currently working on The Graveyard Queen series for MIRA Books and the Soul Jumper series for Harlequin Teen. The author of over fifty novels, Amanda is a member of the International Thriller Writers and Romance Writers of America. She is a three-time Rita finalist and the recipient of career achievement awards in Series Romantic Suspense and Series Romantic Mystery from RT Reviews. Her Graveyard Queen series has been bought by NBC TV.

http://www.amandastevens.com/

http://www.facebook.com/amandastevensbooks

http://twitter.com/AmandaStevensTX

http://amandastevens.com/blog/

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Ghosts and Contemporary Gothic Creepiness April 24, 2012

By K. M. Martin VINE™ VOICE

Format:Mass Market Paperback

This third book in the Graveyard Queen series was filled with the same Gothic creepiness that infused the first two volumes. If you haven't read the first two books in the series, you might want to stop reading now and quickly find yourself copies of The Restorer and The Kingdom because this story begins shortly after the events of The Kingdom.

Amelia is back in Charleston. She quickly gets back involved in the life of John Devlin. John is a Charleston police detective that she met during The Restorer. They had started a romance but Amelia ended it because John was still being haunted by his dead wife and daughter. Losing Miriama and Shani left him feeling both grief and guilt. Seeing ghosts herself, Amelia had been raised by his father to never have anything to do with a haunted man.

Getting close to Devlin, allowed other ghosts to come to her too. In the mythology of this story, ghosts are like "parasites drawn to our energy, feeding off our warmth. If they know you can see them, they'll cling to you like blight. You'll never be rid of them. And your life will never again be your own." The most persistent and least ghostlike of the ghosts that haunt Amelia is Robert Fremont. He, Devlin, and Tom Gerrity all graduated from the police academy together. He and Devlin were rivals for the affection of Devlin's dead wife. He wants Amelia to find out who murdered him. Amelia is also haunted by and sympathetic to Shani who was Devlin's four-year-old daughter.

Her efforts to find Robert Fremont's muderer and find a way to send Shani to her rest lead Amelia to explore a lot of the ancient African beliefs of the Charleston area. She has to deal with spells, and potions, and magical visitors. She also manages to learn a lot about the relationships between Devlin, Fremont, Gerrity, and Ethan Shaw. Shaw is another forensic anthropologist and the son of a paranormal investigator who has been acting as a mentor to Amelia.

As Amelia untangles the twisted relationships between all the players and delves more into the magic around her, the creepy atmosphere gets even more intense. This was an excellent mystery with wonderful paranormal aspects. I recommend it to fans of ghost stories.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Yet! Spooky, Romantic, and Smart. June 25, 2012

By GoldiReviews

Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This series has been a wonderful ride since book one and I am so pleased to say that book three, The Prophet was an easy five stars for me!

Amelia is back in Charleston in this one and Devlin is back in her life full force. As Amelia comes to terms with the fact that she has gotten the attention of some scary sort of ghosts from the other side, she also deals with her feelings for Devlin. Should she stay away like she knows is best? Should she tell him about his ghosts? I really loved that we were back into this story line, it felt almost like coming home after book two's detour into a new setting and new love interest. This book made me love Devlin more than the first, I'm not sure why. Something about him in this book was even more sexy. Maybe because he and Amelia spend some more quality time together and we get to actually learn more about him.

At the end of The Restorer, book one in the series, we met Robert Fremont and discovered he was actually a ghost - one that can come out during the daytime, speak, and appear to be fully human. We learned that he is very powerful and that he wanted Amelia's help to solve his murder so he could finally rest in peace. Of course, in attempting to do this, Amelia's path crosses with Devlin's time and time again as she learns more about he and Fremont's friendship prior to his murder. I was really interested in this plot line and I thought it was laid out nicely. Although I figured out the culprit before Amelia, I still thought everything was well written and not overly predictable.

Alongside this plot there is also the ongoing situation with Devlin's ghosts, his wife Mariama and daughter Shani. This was my favorite part of the plot in book one, and I was disappointed that both ghosts were pretty much nonexistent in the sequel. So I was super excited that they were back in this book! Mariama is as creepy as always, hanging on to Devlin and showing her obvious disdain for he and Amelia's "relationship". Shani is my favorite ghost in the series, as I would imagine she would be for many readers since all the other ghosts are terrifying! Shani reminds me of that scary little girl in The Sixth Sense that at first is completely horrifying but then we come to learn that she just wants Hayley Joel Osment's help. That's Shani. In this one she goes to extreme lengths to get Amelia's help and I loved watching her story play out. We also get to learn much more about Mariama, her relationship with Devlin prior to her death, and her and Shani's death itself. In fact, author Stevens really wraps up their story and leaves me wondering where the next book will go.

Did I say "next book"? Yep. Stevens recently announced that there will at least three more books in this series (*does happy dance*).

Reccommended for fans of: ghost stories, voodoo, cemeteries, and sexy police detectives.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good but Missing a Key Element June 9, 2012

By IsabelleDallas

Format:Mass Market Paperback

4+ stars. I liked this better than The Kingdom, but slightly less than the first book, The Restorer. I was glad for Amelia to be back in Charleston to continue the story line with Devlin and the ghosts introduced in The Restorer.

This book tied up a lot of questions raised in the first book. About Devlin and his relationship with his wife and daughter, the accident that killed Mariama and Shani, the reason for Shani communicating with Amelia, who killed Robert Fremont and why.

There were mention in this book by several characters that Amelia had changed but the change to me as the reader wasn't an entirely positive one. Like in The Kingdom, she seemed more fearful and was very impulsive with her decisions. I actually found that her impulses gave her somewhat of a stalker quality, more than once she found herself hiding in the bushes eavesdropping!

One of the key elements I found missing in this book is the lack of continuity with the "door opening" that occurred in The Restorer in the night Amelia ran away from Devlin. That was a big part of the reason she stayed away in the first place but somehow it didn't make an appearance in this book. That was a jarring inconsistency.

There were twists in the end that were unexpected but also made sense. The ending was intriguing but I didn't like how it creates doubt as to the reason for Devlin coming back, was it his choice or was it because of Darius? No doubt that was the point.