Dead Witch Walking

a Book Review of the Novel by Kim Harrison

Instead of a glass of red wine, which usually gives me a massive headache, I decided to indulge with a nice steamy fantasy mystery (and a beer). After a stressful couple of weeks, and lots of advertising of the newest book in this series, I decided to pick up Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison. This is the book first of Kim Harrison’s epic 15 novel series.

Just like most people, I am a fan of a good “trashy” fantasy novel every once in a while. This one was pretty good. The story follows Rachel Morgan, a bounty hunter, who decides to leave her government job. However, she can’t just quit, as this company holds a deadly grudge. Rachel needs to clear the resulting bounty on her head so that she can start her own freelance business.

There is a comedic pixie sidekick, a kickass vampire sidekick, a geeky librarian sidekick, and an older warlock sidekick. It was honestly a lot of sidekicks, but it was nice to see a heroine solving crimes with a team.  Rachel has a lot of attributes of a classic fantasy heroine. She seems dumb at times but is naturally skilled, charismatic, and things generally go her way. Even though this trope is tried, it’s one of my favorites. I can’t help but enjoy reading about Rachel’s crazy experiences that frequently result from her own incompetence (e.g. she gets trapped as a mink because she doesn’t plan ahead).

The author is sometimes long-winded, with seemingly irrelevant subplots that are clearly set-ups for the next book. Some characters appear just briefly but are clearly going to appear in the future (eg. Kisten). I read a couple of these books about 10 years ago and vaguely remember exciting things happening with Kisten ;).

This was a quick, entertaining read. Dead Witch Walking is one of Kim Harrison’s first books and I willing to bet that they only get better. I’d put money on it, and will definitely be buying the next book in the series. I’ll let you know what I think!

The Don’t Call Me Ishmael Official Book Rating, Sponsored by Whales in The Coastal’s H2O (WITCH):

3.5/5 Whales - Enjoyable.