A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Cheating Death
Author: Maxie Dara
Reviewer: Sophia Rose
Rating: B+
What I’m Talking About:
A road trip with an estranged (and sometimes strange) twin brother, his quirky parrot and death hard on their heels has a passive risk-averse woman forced back into the rat-race known as life. Maxie Dara’s second book in her SCYTHE paranormal cozy mystery series follows a new character and new standalone mystery in A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Cheating Death.
Her parents died and Nora’s been squeamish about death ever since and this includes nullifying any risks toward death and pretty-much going through life on the sidelines. In an effort to understand death with a thought to better preventing it, Nora works for SCYTHE, a bureaucratic agency dealing in the Grim Reaper tasks. She’s a paper pusher for the agency and one day gets the shock of her life when her estranged twin brother’s file is the next one up for assignment.
Nora’s not impulsive and tends to stringently follow rules, but for once in her life, she tosses out the rule book, steals the SCYTHE file before it gets assigned to a grim reaper, and with effort talks Charlie into hitting the road with her to cheat death.
It soon becomes obvious that someone is bound and determined to snuff out Charlie’s existence because that file keeps magically updating to show new and more desperate means of causing Charlie’s death each time they manage to thwart it. Thanks to foul-mouthed, but timely advice from Jessica the parrot and some stunning twists and turns when they land in Virgo Bay, their father’s home town, the mystery gets some answers. But with a killer and SCYTHE on their trail, can Nora and Charlie survive the death they’ve been cheating for so long?
A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Cheating Death surprised me in that it turned the spotlight from Kathy in the first book to a new heroine. I liked seeing some new aspects of SCYTHE with Nora working as an admin assistant and I liked getting to know Nora and seeing her duck and dodge her way right back into the land of the living. Her twin, Charlie is a crack up- him, and Jessica the parrot so there is humor as well as the suspense, mystery, and paranormal elements infusing the book. I had a good time with it just like I did with the first book. Something a little different for those who enjoy paranormal cozy mysteries.
My Rating: B+ Liked It A Lot
Sophia Rose
About the Book:
When a determined killer targets her brother, a grim reaper risks everything to save him in this delightful cozy mystery.
Nora Bird works for S.C.Y.T.H.E., which might seem odd for someone as terrified of death as she is. But ever since her parents died in an accident when she was six, she’s been obsessed with avoiding risk, and what better place to learn how to cheat death than the company that employs the nation’s grim reapers?
The work enables Nora to learn all about the myriad ways you can kick the bucket, which is comforting…until one day, a file crosses her desk with a name she recognizes. Her twin brother’s.
The twins haven’t spoken in six months, but Charlie is all Nora has left. Completely against her cautious nature, Nora steals the file and flees, racing to her brother’s house. She begs him to trust her that his death is imminent, and they hit the road (with his parrot, Jessica, who has plenty to say) in an attempt to evade both death and S.C.Y.T.H.E., whose sole mission of collecting souls has been disrupted by Charlie’s continued existence.
Alas, every time Nora saves him, a new cause of death appears in his file. Someone is determined to take Charlie out, and Nora will have to use everything she’s ever learned about death to discover the culprit.
Release Date: December 6, 2025
Publisher: Berkley
Series: SCYTHE Mysteries #2
Genre: Paranormal Mystery
Format(s): paperback (288 pages), e-book, audiobook
Book Source: NetGalley