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Band:Kim Harrison Album:Dead Witch Walking Record Company:Harper Collins Writer: Sherri Carras Click Album Cover To Buy Now

First in Kim Harrison’s The Hollow series.

I hesitated in picking this book up, since the cover looked a little sleazy. You see a woman from the back only, with her bright red hair up in a sloppy French braid. She’s wearing a red leather top that barely covers her breasts, and low slung leather pants. From the waistband dangles a pair of handcuffs, and a bunch of gaudy charms like a heart, a moon, and a pair of dice. I’ve steered clear of Laura Hamilton books, only because I’ve read reviews that it’s more about sex than about an actual story. However, the top of this book cover proclaimed “You’ll love this bounty hunter.” The quote was from one of my newfound favorite authors, Charlaine Harris, who wrote Dead to The World (reviewed last week). I figured, ‘what the hell.’

I am very glad I took the risk. This is a richly developed ‘author’s universe’, to steal from fan fiction verbiage. Man never walked on the moon in this world, because there was a plague that wiped out more than any disease up until that time. The cause was found in tomatoes, of all things, and surviving humans still hesitate to eat them. Those who were the most resilient were Inderlanders, those graced with magical talents at birth, but live inland, away from the saltwater oceans, because saltwater decimates their power. Inderlanders look human, and have been among us all this time, hiding in fear of what humans do to what they don’t understand. With the crippling blow to the human population, Inderlanders ‘came out’. An uneasy truce was made, and an agency was created to handle trespasses between the species. Fairies and pixies are at war with each other. Vampires and werewolves aren’t so chummy, either. Elves are extinct, because they weakened their bloodline by inter-marrying with humans.

We meet Rachel Morgan, a flat-chested, red headed bounty hunter who hides the freckles on her nose by wearing a charmed pinky ring her dad gave her as a birthday gift. In the beginning she’s working for a bounty hunting business that controls her life, as well as the lives of everyone else who work for them. They’re brutal, too, if you want to quit before your debts to them are paid. Guess what Rachel does?

Rachel only decides to quit after another, much more powerful, bounty hunter decides to quit. This is Ivy Tam, a ‘living vampire’. She is not as powerful a vampire as the dead ones, but she is a force to be reckoned with. What Kim Harrison does with her vampire reality is fascinating, even though the fight between werewolves and vampires tires me after watching Underworld.

Joining forces with Ivy Tam, Rachel feels better protected, even though a hit is immediately put on her for quitting. There are several reasons why she is pursued so aggressively, but I can’t give them away here. It’s worth the read to find out.

This is a heftier read than Charlaine Harris, but there isn’t any filler. There are many more interesting secondary characters that make this world that much richer and real. There is even a character introduced nearly two thirds into the story that will win you over quick. That takes talent, and Kim Harrison has it in spades. This is the first of The Hollow series, and I think she’s already up to five. How do I always end up discovering a series when it’s already well established? In any event, I have the second book already in hand, just waiting for me to have time to read it. I highly recommend this first installment to anyone looking for an intelligent take on vampires and witches and demons, with plenty of black humor.

Band:Kim Harrison Album:Dead Witch Walking Record Company:Harper Collins Writer: Sherri Carras Click Album Cover To Buy Now

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