DEAD WITCH WALKING: It's Alternate Earth time! Rachel Morgan is a witch, one of the Inderlanders (witches, vampires, weres, pixies and fairies, so far) of Cinncinati. What's left of humanity lives in the city. The Inderlanders tend to live in the Hollows. I won't blame you if the theme to 'Attack of the Killer Tomatoes' starts running through your head when you find out what killed almost all of the humans and wiped out the elves about 40 years before the start of this book. There are two rival police forces: Inderlander Security, or I.S., staffed by Inderlanders; and the Federal Inderland Bureau, or F.I.B., staffed by humans. As the book opens,. Rachel works for I.S. Things haven't been going well on the job -- too many accidents. Her assignments have been getting worse. I.S. won't even assign her a fairy for backup anymore. Rachel has to accept a pixy, Mr. Jenks. Her assignment is to tag a leprechaun who has been quite naughty. I cracked up when I read the description of the charms Rachel used because I'm old enough to remember when Lucky Charms cereal had only four different marshmallow bits.

Rachel's boss is a slime. Getting away from him would be the best part about being fired if he hadn't decided to retaliate because one of his best runners, living vampire Ivy Tamwood, bought out her own I.S. contract at the same time.

Rachel has to deal with assassination attempts for the rest of the book, hence the title. She shares a dwelling with Ivy (who no longer takes blood). Luckily, the dwelling comes with a garden full of the kinds of plants an Earth witch such as Rachel needs to make her own amulets. (No steady paycheck makes the usual practice of buying ready-made amulets and charms out of the question.) Jenks is going to work with the ladies. He, his lovely wife, and their dozen children take up residence in a stump in the garden. This being the Hollows, it's no suprise that the nice old man across the street is a witch, too. Yes, on this Earth, witches and warlocks can be of either sex. Witches are more skilled than warlocks.

We learn how talented Rachel is when she stirs up a spell that would be very expensive to buy (the liability insurance required to sell it is also costly). Our witch is trying to get proof that not all of Councilman Trent Kalamack's business dealings are legal. One illegal business wouldn't be illegal on our Earth, but it comes with a particularly nasty death sentence on this one. Trent is handsome and has a melodious voice, but he's probably the biggest monster in this book, next to a demon sent to kill Rachel. He'd like to have Rachel on his employee payroll. The method he chooses to try to break her will when she turns him down is sickening.

There are thrills, near escapes, chills, action, and relationship development in this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UNDEAD:

As with book one, Rachel is working on a run, this time to steal back a stolen koi from a werewolf. This leads to meeting Detective Glenn of the Federal Inderlander Bureau. (He's using his mother's maiden name because his father is also in the FIB, same city.) Remember that name -- he's going to be a regular in this series. The good news is that Captain Edden has a job for Rachel. The bad news is that it involves taking a class on ley line magic with Dr. Anders -- the teacher who flunked Rachel out when she tried to take that class back in college. Someone has been killing ley line witches in horrifying ways. The FIB suspect Dr. Anders.

It's just as well that the FIB have hired Rachel because the people who hired her to get back their koi are refusing to pay her for something that isn't her fault.

Glenn, Ivy Tamwood, & Rachel go to Pizza Piscary's. There Rachel meets Ptah Ammon Fineas Horton Madison Parker Piscary, master vampire and founder of Ivy's living vampire line. There Glenn is forced to eat a slice of pizza with *gasp* tomato sauce on it. There will be lasting effects from this.

Rachel is dating Nick, the magic-using human she met in book one. She finds out something about him that should put him in the Too Stupid to Live category, but so far hasn't. Nick helps her with her homework for Dr. Anders' class. Neither one expects the result. Dr. Anders is the one to figure out what it means and she's horrified. (So are Rachel and Nick, actually.)

That demon from book one comes back. Algaliarept will also appear in books three through five. He's a scary one.

Poor Ivy has something ghastly happen to her that will continue to affect her.

Jenks is still working with Rachel. He and his family still live in the stump in the garden of the church where Ivy and Rachel live. Some of Jenks' kids give Rachel a real workout that made me smile. (In chapter 15 we learn that his youngest daughter's name is Jezebel.)

We learn more about the mysterious Trent Kalamak and his men, Jonathan and Quen, in this book. We also learn something about Trent and Rachel's fathers. Are these three guys going to be regulars? Yes.

So, who is killing those ley line witches? Finding out could get Rachel herself killed.

I enjoyed this book as much as the first one. ( )

Book 1
"Blends the best qualities of Anita Blake and Stephanie Plum..."

That was the review that led me to pick up this book; I'm a big Plum fan. And the two main characters are very similar in personalities. But...
I really did NOT enjoy the lesbian overtones that are woven throughout this book. There was no indication anywhere that that kind of relationship would be in this book. Rachel's vampire roommate, Ivy is a vampire and always lusting after Rachel's blood. Even though Rachel constantly reminds us that she is straight, she still is drawn to Ivy and vice versa. The language used to describe these scenes is very sexual. I really just wish the Ivy character had been a guy, I would have enjoyed this book so much more.

Book 2
*Sigh* I really dig the the world that Kim Harrison has created in this series. But I so do not enjoy reading about vampire/lesbian metaphor she uses in the relationship between Rachel and her vampire roommate Ivy especially as that metaphor has become increasingly transparent in each successive book. Whenever those scenes occur, the whole book becomes something entirely different, and not the kind of different that is fun to read.
( )