Haunted Destiny by Heather Graham

Krewe of Hunters, I can't quit you, not even when you aren't very good...

Here's the summary:
Between the evil and the deep blue sea…

A historic cruise ship, a haunted ship, the Celtic American Line's Destiny, sets sail from the Port of New Orleans—with a killer on board. He's known as the Archangel Killer because of the way he displays his victims in churches. And how he places a different saint's medallion on each body. No one knows exactly who he is or why he's doing this.

Jackson Crow—head of the FBI's Krewe of Hunters, a special unit of paranormal investigators—is assigned to the case, along with local agent Jude McCoy. Then Alexi Cromwell, who works in the ship's piano bar, is drawn into the situation when a victim's ghost appears to her—and to Jude. She and Jude share an attraction, and not just because of their mutual talent.

There are many suspects, but one by one they're ruled out… Or are they? In the end, Jude and Alexi have to rely on each other to catch the killer and escape his evil plans for Alexi.

I don't even know where to start here, so jumping in feet first with the characters. First, there are a lot. In fact, there's a cast listing at the start of the book, like an old-school romance. There are enough characters that sometimes one of the main characters (like say Jackson, head of the Krewe!) would show up and I'd have no idea who he was. Once again, I found the FBI agents to be pretty interchangeable, and won't likely remember which book was Jude and which was Jackson.  Alexi is pretty likable tho and I think I'll remember her.

The romance, like all the Krewe books, is predicable and fast with very little attention paid to development. Why do they love each other after only a week? I have no idea. The book kind of tries to take the angle that it's because they share the ability to see ghosts, but even that isn't really pressed. As with the others, you just have to accept the romance and move on.

So why do I even read them if I can't keep the characters straight and the romance is flat? Because they are still compulsively readable. The plots (usually) move along well, and I'm always interested in seeing how Graham will blend the paranormal into the story seamlessly. In that aspect, Haunted Destiny is actually really well done, the ghosts are woven in well and seem natural there. Unfortunately, Haunted Destiny dragged along. They were stuck at sea, there was no contact with land for outside help in the FBI investigation because of a giant storm (but the captain was always in touch with the cruise line? What? But FBI couldn't get help with the serial killer on board? This makes no sense.)  There are only a limited number of suspects and rather than just suck it up and detain them they let them wander the ship and kill off a couple people.  It just made no sense. I still read it in an afternoon, so you can see that lack of sense isn't a real game stopper for me.

Would I recommend this one to a friend? No, I probably wouldn't. Will I keep reading them? Clearly, I can't stop.