Book Review: Haunted Destiny by Heather Graham

Haunted Destiny by Heather Graham is the 18th book in the Krewe of Hunters paranormal romantic suspense series. I have read many Heather Graham books, but I have to admit, I somehow let this entire series skip my radar.

Since I’ve recently become interested again in paranormal mysteries, I picked up the last book in the series to see whether it would capture my attention. If it did, I’d go back to the first book and work my way up through the remaining novels.

The whole story is taking place mainly at sea, on a supposedly haunted ship called Destiny, owned by Celtic American Line.

There is a serial killer murdering women in New Orleans, and Jude McCoy, a local FBI agent is assigned to work with Jackson Crow, who is part of the Krewe team, in order to catch him. From what witnesses notice, the killer is seen boarding the Destiny, where he disappears from view. The two investigators chase him to the ship, but he is nowhere to be found. Except maybe he is, which is all too confusing when it turns out that a ship entertainer – a piano musician called Alexi Cromwell, can see ghosts.

As the story progresses, we learn that things are not quite as they seem, and ghosts on the ship abound, both old and new. When Jude learns that Alexi can see ghosts, he thinks she is deceiving him until he gets the surprise of his life: so can he!

The story is fast-paced action, although most of it happens in the confined space of the ship. The suspects abound on the luxurious yacht with over 3000 passengers, and the red herrings are carefully planted as well. I really didn’t see who the actual murderer was until the very end.

Of course as usual in a Heather Graham mystery, romance is a key player in the story, and this time it was sizzling and full of sparks. Once Jude realized that Alexi fits nicely the profile of the killer’s victims, he wouldn’t let her out of his sight. One thing let to the other and…

While a powerful storm kept the ship from docking, thus making each passenger a perfect target for the ruthless serial killer, the various ghosts did try to help them as much as they could. In fact, I enjoyed the ghosts interaction quite a lot, and often their bickering made me chuckle.

As most romantic suspense novels, the book was rather formulaic, and while I actually didn’t know who the killer was until the end, the main storyline was not difficult to figure out how it would end. Yet, this is the very charm of the said genre and that’s why we like reading it so much. The main and supporting characters – including the ghosts – were quite fun to learn about.

Overall Haunted Destiny was a fun beach read, and now I’ll go back and start reading the Krewe of Hunters series from the beginning. In the meantime there is now the 19th book out as well with the title Deadly Fate, followed by the next one coming the end of the year titled Darkest Journey. Yumm, so many good books to catch up to!

Haunted Destiny by Heather Graham
Series: Krewe of Hunters #18
Published by Mira
Published 2016
Genres: Romantic Suspense
Source: Purchased
Also by this author: Big Easy Evil, Wicked Deeds