I recently read and enjoyed Dead Witch Walking, the first book by Kim Harrison. It was the first book in a series dealing with many supernatural beings like witches, vampires, werewolves, fairies, and pixies. Since I enjoyed the first book, I decided to pick up The Good, The Bad, and The Undead, the second book.

I’m going to briefly share some general information about these books. Some of what I mention could be spoilers if Dead Witch Walking hasn’t been read yet.

An area around Cincinnati Ohio, called the Hollows, was where many magical creatures like vampires and witches lived. Humans found out about the magical beings after a genetic disease that got in a tomato infected and killed humans around the world. Humans have been terrified of tomatoes ever since. The magical beings weren’t killed and they lived in an uneasy alliance with humans ever since. Neither group fully trusted the other. Humans formed the Federal Interland Bureau to try to police the magical community. Interland Security was formed and staffed by magical creatures for the same reason. The two organizations didn’t have a good working relationship.

Rachel Morgan worked as a runner for the IS before deciding to leave and start her own business. A vampire named Ivy also decided to leave the IS and go into business with Rachel. Jenks, a pixie that had worked with Rachel, also joined the new business. The business was set up in a former church where Rachel and Ivy lived. Jenks and his family lived in the garden of the church. Rachel was held responsible for Ivy leaving the IS by her former boss and she had to deal with many death threats while also trying to prove that Trent was involved in illegal activities. She met Nick, a human that knew a lot about magic and faced a demon as well.

Rachel and Ivy had been running their own business for a few months. Rachel was having trouble paying her part of the bills and it didn’t help when she ended up with clients that refused to pay for whatever reason. She took a job working with the FIB to try and catch the person that was killing ley line witches. Rachel was convinced that Trent was involved because of some very slim connections between him and the victims. She was determined to prove him guilty once again. Nick, Ivy, and Jenks weren’t happy with her decision. Rachel found herself back in college taking a class on ley line magic as part of her investigation. She had to deal with the demon again as well as trouble in her friendship with Ivy and a complication in her relationship with Nick.

Rachel spent most of The Good, The Bad, and The Undead working on her investigation into the murders of witches that used ley line magic. She was convinced Trent was involved even though the FIB had a different suspect. Rachel started out looking for a missing witch that she believed was connected to the recent murders. The FIB did believe the same thing even though they didn’t share Rachel’s idea on who was responsible. Rachel did uncover a lot of evidence that seemed to indicate that the situation was more complex than everyone originally thought. The body of another dead witch was found and another with went missing. The mystery was interesting and did work the supernatural element in well. I do think the mystery could have been a little stronger. There was some suspense in a few scenes that helped to keep things interesting. A few scenes contained violence without getting too graphic. The body of the dead with that was found after Rachel started working on the case was described. Things that had been done to the other dead witches were also shared. Those things weren’t pleasant to read about and could be disturbing to some readers.

In the magical world created by Harrison for these books, witches could use different types of magic. Earth witches would use different plants to create their spells. Ley line witches used ley lines that covered the earth to tap into the ever after for power. The ever after was strongly connected to dark magic even though being a ley line witch didn’t automatically make someone evil. Rachel shared that she believed it was more easy to cross the line into dark magic using ley line magic though. There were times when earth witches would need to do a small amount of ley line magic, like when casting a circle to turn spells in. Rachel had said back in the first book that she didn’t trust ley line magic and knew very little about it. She’d remained ignorant about it while still using it to cast a circle when doing certain spells. Her complete lack of knowledge on the subject didn’t stop her from using ley line magic, which caused her to bumble around. She made a very big mess at one point because she really didn’t know what she was doing and she had no idea how to fix it. That situation got worse by the end of the book. She seemed to think that just telling someone that she didn’t know that would happen would absolve her of any responsibility. It just seemed very irresponsible for her to use ley line magic when it suited her needs even though she really didn’t know anything about what she was doing. Rachel’s ignorance about vampires put her in a dangerous situation in the past. She managed to learn some things, but she still didn’t understand a lot of things about vampires and ended up in more dangerous situations because of it. She grew up knowing that she was a witch and knowing about other magical creatures. Somehow she still managed to be in the dark about so many things. Frankly that made Rachel look dumb at times.

Rachel and Nick started dating between the first and second books. He was around for a while at the end of the first book, but they hadn’t really started a relationship at that point. For a couple that was dating, they didn’t spend that much time together during the course of the book. They still had a lot to learn about each other which did add some stress and tension to their relationship. They did have a sexual relationship and there was one sex scene in the book. The scene was descriptive and probably too graphic for some viewers. There were some other sexual situations and discussions in the book. There was some underlying sexuality included in a few scenes that really didn’t seem to be that sexual at first. It seemed that the author was setting up to turn Rachel into a sex crazed character in a future book.

Rachel continued to be the main character. The story was told in the first person point of view from her perspective like the first book was which did help to make her a more developed character. She was a powerful witch that remained unaware of how powerful she was. She was very naive about certain magical things and continued to do some very stupid things. Rachel did end up remembering something from her childhood that cause her to figure out something else. It did seem just a bit convenient how she just seemed to randomly toss out the small bit of information from her childhood, later remember something else from her childhood that turned out to be connected to something in the present that was going on. Rachel did annoy me more than once.

Ivy, Jenks, Trent, and Nick were also back, though in smaller more supporting roles. None of them were as developed as Rachel was. Ivy and Nick remained mysterious throughout the book. A little more was shared about Ivy and why she had done certain things. Finding out those things did make me feel justified for having doubts about her in the first book. I really hadn’t liked her that much in that book even though she did things that helped Rachel. Frankly, after some of what Ivy had done, I just don’t get why Rachel remained loyal to her as a friend. Ivy basically attacked Rachel at one point, and instead of being upset about what had happened, Rachel told Nick and Jenks it was all her fault. Nick really wasn’t around too much so he didn’t get much more developed either. He knew a lot about magic and dabbled with certain things. He actually knew more about certain magical things than Rachel did. Trent kept popping up, connected to several things that were going on. Something very important about him was shared that I thought was interesting. There were still many unanswered questions about him that I’m thinking will be answered in future books.

I thought that The Good, The Bad, and The Undead had a few problems but was an entertaining book over all. People that enjoy reading books about magical or supernatural types of characters may enjoy it. People that read and liked Dead Witch Walking will probably like this books as well.

Kim Harrison Book Reviews
~ Dead Witch Walking ~



Recommended: Yes