Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison

This was a pretty entertaining book.  I won't say it was the best written out there, but it certainly kept me interested and was one of those great books that goes well with a bubble bath and a glass of wine.  And it's the first in a series, which means that there is more of this entertainment to be had.

Rachel is a runner for the IS (Inderland Security) a somewhat police force that monitors the magical realm of things as opposed to the human's FIB (Federal Inderlander Bureau) and is generally made up of such magical beings as witches and vampires.  Rachel herself is a witch, and due to a series of not so great assignment, she's ready to quit.  To her surprise, Ivy, a vampire hotshot in the Security also wants to force, but once that happens a price can be placed on their heads, and Rachel has to stay alive long enough to figure a way out of her contract.

Rachel is an ok character.  A bit too brash and she has trouble thinking things through sometimes.  But I guess that makes her realistic.  Her love interest, Nick, I didn't care for too much.  I think he just reeks of trouble and I couldn't find too many good qualities about him.  Ivy was one of the better characters.  She gets mad a little too often but she's more level-headed and seemed the stronger of the two girls.  Jenks, the pixie, was a lot of fun at least and I enjoyed reading about him and his family.  The bad guys weren't even too bad in this.  They had a  mysterious quality about them and that kept things interesting.  I just wish more time had been spent on Rachel making her a well-rounded character.  As it was she just had a few extremes and that's what made her.

The plot was decent.  There was a lot of action and the book was constantly moving and things were always being done.  I don't think Rachel ever sat still except for when she was hurt.  Which was somewhat unbelievable, but oh well.  I did enjoy all the different mytsical type beings coming together and thought that the explanation for how the world turned out the way it did was well thought out.  I would have liked to have more detail, but at least I got a good giggle out of how a genetically modified tomato is what started the who downward cycle of the human race.  And people wonder why I eat organic.  There's no sex in this book bu there is some romance.  And with Ivy being a vampire there's a bit of tension between her and Rachel, but I thought it was an intriguing way to develop their working relationship.  There is also violence in this book and magic and a myriad of other things that some people don't like, but then again those people probably shouldn't be reading a book with "witch" in the title.

Very entertaining and I'll be sure to read the next one when I come across it.  It seems like this is a great series for fun, light reading.

Dead Witch Walking
Copyright 2004
416 pages