Book 12: Dead Witch Walking

Title and Author: Dead Witch Walking, by Kim Harrison

Illustrator: none
Publisher: Harper Voyager, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers
Publication Date: December 2003
Genre: Fantasy action/mystery
Target Audience/Age Group: Adult
Part of a Series? Yes
Will the Reviewer Keep It In His/Her Library? Yes

At Comic-Con publishers will give away copies of the first book in a series by a successful author. They hope Book One will increase sales of Book Two and the subsequent volumes. This worked with us on Naomi Novik's Tremaire books.

And it worked for us on Kim Harrison's Hollows series. Dead Witch Walking is a good book and we have already bought the next two books at Barnes and Noble. (They have this great service, where they'll pull the books and hold them behind the counter for you.)

Rachel Morgan is a witch working for a supernatural police force in Cincinnati (isn't it nice to have a book set somewhere outside New York City?) She's not appreciated at her job but quitting is problematic because she'd have to buy out her contract with her employer. She thinks they'll be glad to get rid of her, but instead of cheerfully waving goodbye, they put out a contract on her life. She leaves anyway, going into partnership with a vampire and a pixie. 

I love the world Harrison has created. I want to lease my garden to pixies–they not only tend the plants, they are a better alarm system than geese. I want a pixie partner. I want to know what happens to Trent Kalamack, the villain, and Nick Sparagmos, the librarian. I want Rachel and Ivey to succeed. I won't bother writing about that world; it's all spelled out on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollows_(series) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characters_in_the_Hollows_series#Secondary_characters

And most of all, I'm glad I got the first book in an established series so I can satisfy that urge to read more. So many books given away are the first book in a new series, and until we started this project I refused to read them because I didn't want to have to wait for the next volume. It was hard waiting for each Harry Potter book when my daughter was little; I don't have to do that anymore. I can wait before I get hooked again.

August 10, 2014 Update

The scribe has read book 2, is half way through book 3 and will pick up books 4 & 5 at Barnes and Noble today. Sometimes the sequels don't measure up. This is not one of those times.

Book 3 has this quote on the back: "Discovering a new series like this is like finding buried treasure; you want to dig it all up at once and when you open each book, fistfuls of gold doubloons and jewels fall out sparkling into your lap. The world of the Hollows is fast-moving, funny, harrowing and scary, and–the greatest compliment to a fantasy–absolutely real." Diana Gabaldon

Whatever you think of the Outlander books, Ms. Gabaldon nailed this one.