Thank you to Netgally, the publishers, and Alice James

When I requested this book I was unaware that it was apart of a series, one that requires you to read the previous books for this one to make sense. I am unable to read all the previous books along with this one before the publish date. Therefore, I will rate this a fair 3/5 stars and will adjust the rating and review when I am able to read all the books in the series along with this one.

This is the third in the series. If you are reading at this point, you either like the series or don’t. I find them fun. You need to be here for the relationships and the ongoing drama and I am. The mysteries are usually easily solved but still entertaining. The MC is trying to solve a mystery for her brother while still figuring out the ongoing mystery of her family, and answers are finally given about her grandfather and parents. I find it fun and escapist but am not expecting something unique or groundbreaking. Instead, there is a surprisingly complex set of characters and lots of vampires and the occasional zombie, a great Halloween season read.

Grave Suspicions by Alice James is the third book in the Lavington Windsor Mystery series. I thought I had read at least one of the two previous books, but I have not. Thankfully I have read enough of this sub genre of books that I was able to figure out most of the important bits quickly.

Estate agent by day, necromancer by night, and reluctant amateur sleuth when bullied into it Toni Windsor is already juggling life and now she has to find out who clubbed a Cornish cheese millionaire to death while he was alone in a locked room. And her diary was already full. She’s trying to keep the peace between vampire courts, a fistful of demonic contracts have just landed on her lap and – no surprise – her love life still isn’t looking great even though she’s finally dating someone who isn’t dead. Can’t a girl catch a break?

Grave Suspicions is an enjoyable and engaging read. When I started the book I thought I had certainly read the first book in the series, simply because this is right up my ally, but I must have some how missed the first two books at some point, which is something I will now have to rectify. The book is balanced well between snarky humor, trying to figure out several mysteries and problems at one, and Toni just trying to figure out exactly who she is and what she want. There is fun, danger, sexy times, and character growth all woven together. If you have read the first two books, then don't stop now. If you have not read the other books I do suggest starting at the beginning (I wish I had) so that you don't have the earlier surprises ruined for you. I am going back to read the first two books now- and I look forward to seeing how Toni got to the point where I met her in this book.

Grave Suspicions is a fun read with plenty of mystery, shenanigans, and some sexy times.

This book is action packed all the way through. You have the murder of Polkerris that Toni has to solve, the man that appears to be stalking her, and the mysterious missing coterie that Toni has been tasked with investigating. The Polkerris murder is intriguing. There are some good twists and turns throughout the investigation, and you never quite know how it is going to turn out. Toni's stalkers add some interesting complications making everything a little bit harder. The missing coterie also adds some good twists and turns. I enjoyed the growing relationship between Toni and Nicky while she investigated his missing coterie.

Toni's life continues to be a disaster. She barely shows up to her job, she's always hungover, and she never knows what to do with her love life. Toni during this book finally gets to learn a little more about her necromancy and her witch powers. It's good that James is starting to give more of Toni's backstory, and give the reader a better understanding of how Toni came to be. It's also good that she has managed to tie Toni's backstory into the vampire assemblage, giving Toni some more connection to the vampires.

There are a lot of side characters by book three. We have collected all of the side characters from books 1 and 2, plus the addition of several from this book. It is extremely hard to keep all of the them straight and remember who everyone is. I found myself constantly flipping through to try and jog my memory about several characters. It might be beneficial for James to choose which side characters should be more prominent than others.

All in all, this book is a very entertaining read. It's the best book in the series currently. James continues to grow as an author through the series. She managed to tie all of the investigations in the book together under one theme, which I found to be brilliant. Everything was tied together in the book, but with an eye towards what might happen in the fourth. I, personally, am excited to see the return of Oscar in the fourth.

This book is absolutely one of my favorites. I loved this so much. I ave got to read the previous books. I love love love this! I couldn't put it down. Toni is perfect and I can't wait to see what she gets into next!
I just reviewed Grave Suspicions by Alice James. #GraveSuspicions #NetGalley
[NetGalley URL]

Thanks to Netgalley for the eARC provided.
Like the other two books in this series, this was great fun once again!
Toni is hilarious and her comments often made me chuckle and I wish her the best HEA a necromancer can have. She deserves it. You know what she also deserves? A cute boyfriend, maybe a certain German doctor (who I missed terribly this book). I like that it is hard to predict who the love interest in the book is going to be, as well as how sex positive it is.
Also fuck you Oscar, you suck (especially for a vampire).
All in all a really fun read/listen with lots of fun characters (new and old), not my favorite book in the series so far but I’m already looking forward to a fourth book!

A really great and fun read. I loved the characters and the story. Will look out for more from this author.

So, the biggest mistake I made was not realising that this book was part of a series. But nevertheless, I persevered and jumped straight in. Despite not having much context, and thank you to Alice James for that convenient recap at the beginning, I loved Toni and this cozy paranormal fantasy, with vampires and spirits and witches and zombies. I loved the backdrop of this English town and a very interesting cast of characters and
a really interesting mystery and Toni's search for love and realisations about her past!

Alice James has given us Grave Suspicions the third book in the Lavington Windsor Mysteries series.
This is a well written Cozy Horror Mystery Romp that follows the life of necromancer Lavington 'Toni' Windsor.

Grave Suspicions takes us six months from the ending of the where we left off in the previous book with a delightful continuation of Toni's life and we get more of her adventures and some answers to her past as well.

This book is well written with good pacing, with mystery elements that the solutions are not obvious from the beginning. Toni is a human character who makes good choices and bad choices but that is what makes her human and makes for enjoyable reading.

While I have read the previous two books in the series I don't think it would be absolutely necessary to do so.


Thank-you to Rebellion, Solaris and NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Another fun installment, and obviously not the last. Not much romance in this one and thankfully no Peter. The Nicky subplot was interesting but I wanted more Benedict. When is the next book?! Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC

The premise of this book and its previous companions is fun - a spunky, quirky necromancer in England running around with vampires and zombies, with her chaotic love life mixed in. However, I can’t get past how Wattpad-like the writing can be. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing! But I have grown out of my Wattpad phase, and I want my books to have a bit more polish.

But it’s cute, it’s fun, it’s a good cozy fantasy read, great for fall.

Grave Suspicions
Lavington Windsor Mysteries #3
Author: Alice James
Publisher: Solaris/Rebellion Publishing
Release date: 15th Aug 2023

Lavington (Toni) Windsor is a real estate agent and a necromancer. In between selling properties, she helps her brother Wills (a cop) solve crimes by raising the dead and asking them who killed them. This is rarely straightforward.
In this book, she’s investigating missing people, dead bodies, her Grandad’s past and psychotic stalkers. Somehow, she always ends up with more trouble than she needs, but just enough for her to handle.
Eighty-four year old Derowen – The Cornish Cheese Millionaire – is found dead in the classic ‘locked room’ scenario. He was not a well liked man, despite his access to cheese. And Will needs her help.
At the same time, vampire boss Benedict Akil sends Toni to meet up with vampire Nicky to help him find out where the human women of his coterie have disappeared to.
Then there’s the human who has stalked vampire Sophy all the way from Paris and is determined to get his ‘love’ back.
Add in a wonderful boyfriend who is human, harmless but doesn’t light her on fire and demonic contracts landing on her desk, and it’s all a bit much.
All this, after being almost vampire-free six months.
There’s a lot going on in this one and the worldbuilding itself is growing, with Emir who runs the underground vampire club, the introduction of witches and Paul – her lodger – becoming more ingrained in the supernatural life.
I really like new vampire Nicky. He might be naive where it comes to his shallow girlfriend, but when it comes to the crunch, he supports Toni, and though he may want to look the part of goth vampire, he’s a bit of a marshmallow inside. He’s also, like the rest of the walking mosquitos – pretty sexy.
Brendon, Toni’s zombie, makes a few appearances too and he is always welcome, whilst Benedict steals almost every scene he’s in.
The parts that make this book almost a completion of a story arc, is the discoveries Toni makes about her parents and her granddad.
This novel is abundantly joyful, despite the murder and mayhem, sexy, funny, but surprisingly with this one, a little bit heart-breaking. When the reader finally clicks what the set of contracts are all about, it’s likely to change their attitude to a couple of characters, just as it changes Toni’s perspective on quite a few things.
I adored this one, as I’ve adored the previous two books, but now it feels like we’re about to get into some dark places with book four.
Though I have no doubt it will still be littered with a lot of fun and laughter.
This is another terrific instalment.

This was such a fun concept for a supernatural novel, I enjoyed getting to know Toni as a character and thought she worked well overall. Alice James has a great writing style and it left me wanting to read more from her.

I want to read another novel in this series soon and not wait 3 years.
Toni Windsor is one of her kind, we can drop names but she's a likeable, complex and funny necromancer who likes to choose the most unsuitable fiancè.
That said this is another highly entertaining and gripping novel.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Magic + Mysteries + Vampires + some romance was exactly what I was feeling. The writing was easy to immerse myself in, but I'm going to be honest, I wanted to shake the main character for her love life so many times in this book. Girl, if you just communicated with the person you were seeing you would have so many less problems. Other than that, there were a bunch of mysteries that needed to be solved, and it was really satisfying to see them all come together.

I actually started this series on this book, and didn't seem to feel like I was missing anything. Would definitely recommend this if you're looking for a cozy read.

I received an ARC (thank you Rebellion/Solaris/Netgalley) for review!

What a fantastic read. This is number three in the Lavington Windsor Mysteries series, and I am so excited to see what will come next. Toni is so great, you know you would love to be friends with her. This one had me changing my mind about some devilish characters in this story, but that’s part of the reason this author appeals to me so much, everyone has flaws, but it’s how they deal with them that matters.

Book 3 already in this series where we follow necromancer Toni Windsor. Now that the bad boyfriends are out of the way, nothing is in her way to living a good life. Or is there?

The thing about these books is that I enjoy the actual plots and setting. But I am absolutely frustrated with our main character and her choices regarding relationships. At the start of this book she is in a relationship with a kind man who is also a widower. She struggles with that aspact of their relationship, but instead of talking with him about it, it becomes very clear that she is not at all interested in a serious relationship with this man. He leaves for a holiday, she jumps into bed with another man, he comes back and she seems to be staying with him. There is no guilt over cheating. Nothing. That bothered me. I dont mind if a character makes a mistake but it needs to be dealt with. Toni just happily skips along. It makes me slowly start to dislike her.

Like I said, I do enjoy the plot. Learning about the world of the vampires here and how they co-exist with the humans. Her friendship with her latest tenant. Learning more about her own background and why she was treated the way she was by her own family. Her brother is an awesome add too. And of course there is Akil who was severly lacking in this book.

So you can see that I am very conflicted about this book. There are some good things here but also some not good things.

What an imagination. A book full of vampires and a necromancer with real estate as a day job, what can possibly go wrong. So funny and twisted, brilliant!

What a fantastic five-star read. This is number three in the Lavington Windsor Mysteries series, and I am so excited to see what will come next. Toni is so great, you know you would love to be friends with her, but you also know that you would need to come armed, or at least wear some very good protection, as man she really gets herself into some real mixes. This one had me changing my mind about some devilish characters in this story, but that’s part of the reason this author appeals to me so much, everyone has flaws, but its how they deal with them that matters. Toni really does have a heart of gold, and sometimes that gold can become hardened and bruised, but it’s still beautiful. I have a real hope for how this story will go, but honestly I don’t mind, as Toni will keep us guessing and giving us great stories via the imagination of the wonderful Alice James.

Although I haven't read the first in the series, "Grave Suspicions" by Alice James was worth the read. Love the cover.