The good, the bad, and the undead by Kim Harrison

The good, the bad, and the undead is the second book in The Hollows series so this review contains ***SPOILERS***if you have not read the first book in the series.  I highly recommend that you read this series in order, so if you haven't read the other books in the series start with Dead witch walking before reading any more of this review.

Life has been rather interesting for Rachel Morgan since she left her position as a Runner for Inderland Security - not particularly profitable, but it has been interesting.  Her run of bad luck since she left the I.S has continued, with her latest run turning into a big fat disaster and way more work than she intended (not to mention risky).  It wouldn't be so bad if she was out on her own, but Ivy came with her and is depending on Rachel to do her share and pay half the rent.  When she is picked up by a detective from the Federal Inderland Bureau (FIB) so she can help with a case, the last thing Rachel would have expected to see was Trent Kalamack's personal assistant crying over a missing boyfriend.  

If she was smart Rachel would turn the case down, especially when she finds out Captain Edden wants her to go back to university to study ley line magic - but no one ever accused Rachel of being smart.  With pressure rising in her professional life, the last thing she needs is for Ivy to go all weird on her, pushing her towards becoming bonded to Ivy.  It's a step too far for Rachel, and when Ivy pushes the matter too far Rachel's boyfriend Nick starts applying all kinds of pressure too - for Rachel to move out.  As Rachel tries to balance her personal life with the task of tracking down the person killing powerful ley line witches, she finds herself dragged towards Trent Kalamack as a suspect.  As if things weren't bad enough, Rachel makes the disturbing discovery that when the demon bit her in the form of a vampire it left her open and vulnerable to vampires - because if they can bite her they can bind her, and there is nothing she can do to stop them.  It is a race against time for Rachel to figure out who the killer is, and how to stop them.

The good, the bad, and the undead carries on from the explosive start in Dead witch walking - running with some of the same themes, while introducing others.  It has been a long time since I read the series the first time around, so it has been a real pleasure getting to know all the characters again and to rediscover all the things that make the series so great.  I love the mythology of the world, there are rules at work and a logic that make it easy to get lost in the story without being jarred out by wondering what is happening or why.  Rachel is more an anti-hero than hero which makes the series more enjoyable because she has flaws and faults that make her more relateable and human.  

You can feel the different strands of the story twisting and floating into place, and there are some little hints about what is to come.  This is a fantastic urban fantasy series, on the darker side but still fantasy, and I look forward to working my way through them over the coming months as I catch up to the where the series is at now.

 If you like this book then try:

• Omens by Kelley Armstrong
• Summon the keeper by Tanya Huff
• Eight million gods by Wen Spencer
• Dark descendant by Jenna Black
• Moon called by Patricia Briggs
• Angel's blood by Nalini Singh
• Cry wolf by Patricia Briggs
  
• Spiders bite by Jennifer Estep
• Alien taste by Wen Spencer
• Blood price by Tanya Huff
• Kitty and the midnight hour by Carrie Vaughn
• Children of the night by Mercedes Lackey
• Born to run by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon
• Knight of ghosts and shadows by Mercedes Lackey and Ellen Guon

Reviewed by Brilla

Dead witch walking by Kim Harrison

In the 1960s a man made virus ravaged the Earth after hitching a ride on an innocuous looking tomato killing half the population and exposing the Inderlanders - the 'creatures' that man though were only dreams and nightmares - to the general population.  Decades later the Inderlanders live alongside humans, and an uneasy truce has been struck that sees Inderland Security (the I.S) protecting and policing the Inderlanders, while the Federal Inderland Bureau (FIB) protects the humans and hunts down illegal biolabs (as well as keeping an uneasy eye on the Inderlanders).  It's not a perfect world, but it seems to work, and it means witches like Rachel Morgan don't have to hide what they really are.

Employed as a Runner by the I.S she has one job, to bring in Inderlanders who have broken the rules.  It seems simple enough, but things keep going wrong and she can never seem to please her boss.  Deciding to cut her loses, Rachel makes the call to quit the I.S - which shouldn't be a problem due to her lack of popularity, but that's not as easy as it seems, as people who try and break their I.S Runner contracts have a tendency to end up dead.  Rachel has a plan to deal with that though, plans that are rapidly scuttled when Ivy, the best Runner in the office who also happens to be a living vampire, decides to quit too and start a partnership with Rachel - which puts Rachel squarely in the cross hairs of their former boss.

Starting a new career as an independent Runner is going to be hard enough without dodging death curses and hitmen for the foreseeable future.  Rachel's only hope is to bring in a big target that will help her pay off her I.S contract, and there is no bigger target than Trent Kalamack.  Everyone in the I.S knows that Kalamack is involved with dealing Brimstone, but no one can prove it, and anytime they get close he manages to skate free.  Determined to bring him down, Rachel hatches a plan that she is sure will work.  What she wasn't counting on was the complication of living with Ivy, who as a living vampire has all sorts of interesting buttons to push that will put pressure on their working and personal relationships.  There's nothing like the pressure of being in a life and death situation to bring out the best in someone, but Rachel is about to discover that the price of success might be more than she is prepared to pay.

Dead witch walking is the first book in The Hollows series, and it is a brilliant start to a thoroughly enjoyable series.  I started reading the series years ago and then got distracted and forgot about it until recently, when I decided to reread some series and see what new series some of my favourite authors had written.  I was hooked back into the series from the start and have already ordered the second and third books in the series so I can keep going and read my way up to the current book in the series.  One of the things I love most about the series is how 'real' the world of The Hollows is - Harrison has clearly spent time thinking about the mythology of her world, and she has built up a world and a group of characters that is totally believable and relateable.  

This is not a horror series, despite the presence of witches and vampires, it is best described as an urban fantasy - though it is fair to say it is at the darker end of the scale.  This is a fantastic series (no pun intended) and the best part about discovering it now is that you can read through the books in quick order without having to wait for them to be published like I did the first time I read them!

 If you like this book then try:

• Omens by Kelley Armstrong
• Summon the keeper by Tanya Huff
• Eight million gods by Wen Spencer
• Dark descendant by Jenna Black
• Moon called by Patricia Briggs
• Angel's blood by Nalini Singh
• Cry wolf by Patricia Briggs
  
• Spiders bite by Jennifer Estep
• Alien taste by Wen Spencer
• Blood price by Tanya Huff
• Kitty and the midnight hour by Carrie Vaughn
• Children of the night by Mercedes Lackey
• Born to run by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon
• Knight of ghosts and shadows by Mercedes Lackey and Ellen Guon

Reviewed by Brilla

1st case by James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts

Angela Hoot was set for a bright career, until she blew it by being kicked out of her graduate masters programme in Computation for Design and Optimisation at MIT, after a measly two months.  She had her reasons for hacking into another students computer (very good reasons) but she's not about to tell her family about it.  It seems like all her hard work is for nothing but then her mentor, FBI Agent Eve Abajian, helps her get an internship with the FBI.  It could prove to be her dream job, especially as she gets to play with some really cool tech that is close to toys for someone like her as you can get.  The shine of the internship is somewhat tarnished when she is called to a crime scene where the whole family has been killed, most of them in a rather bloody fashion.  It is an abrupt introduction to crime scenes, but it doesn't stop Angela from diving into the case.

Being the intern is bad enough, it doesn't help that Agent Billy Keats, treats her like she needs protecting from the harsh realities of what the FBI deals with.  As Angela gets more involved with the case she becomes more than a little obsessive, especially when Eve points her in the direction of some very cool (but also very creepy) technology.  As someone who has been described as brilliant, and a prodigy, most of her life, Angela tackles the problem like it is a very personal one - refusing to give up the chase for the person responsible for the death of the young women and their families.  Getting tunnel vision is a bad thing though, because if you focus on your target too much you can miss what is happening around you, and the hunter can become the hunted.  Can Angela untangle the technology and find the killer before it is too late?

1st case was an interesting read, partly because it is so tech heavy and that is something that James Patterson tends to avoid in his books, a focus on something that not everyone understands.  I was a little worried that it would be too techie for my mother to enjoy, but she did, so the general story does a very good job of carrying you along even if you aren't that familiar about the technology.  Angela Hoot was an interesting character, she is young and enthusiastic, and she also has some pretty interesting flaws that make her an interesting and well rounded character.  Most James Patterson novels set a blistering pace, and 1st case is no exception.

The writing styles of the two authors flowed together seamlessly, making for a cohesive style without jarring or confusion (unfortunately not always the case with Patterson collaborations).  This was a nice diversion from some of the more graphic and gruesome Patterson collaborations, and also interesting to experience crime from the FBI, and a rather specialized part of the FBI, rather than jus the same old same old police perspective.  Fingers crossed for more offerings from these authors in the future.

If you like this book then try:

• Gathering dark by Candice Fox
• Never never by James Patterson and Candice Fox
• Crimson Lake by Candice Fox
• Vodka doesn't freeze by Leah Giarratano
• The nowhere child by Christian White
• Eeny meeny by M.J. Arlidge
• City of the lost by Kelley Armstrong
• The better sister by Alafair Burke
• The vanishing season by Joanna Schaffhausen
• Breaking Creed by Alex Kava
  
• The edge of normal by Carla Norton
• The slaughter man by Tony Parsons
  
• City of fear by Alafair Burke
• Gathering dark by Candice Fox
• One step too far by Tina Seskis

Reviewed by Brilla