Book Review: Grave Witch by Kalayna Price

Grave Witch
Author: Kalayna Price
Series: Alex Craft series (Book 1)
Publication: Ace (October 5, 2010)

Description: Not even death can save her now. 

As a grave witch, Alex Craft can speak to the dead-she's even on good terms with Death himself. As a consultant for the police, she's seen a lot of dark magic, but nothing has prepared her for her latest case. When she's raising a "shade" involved in a high profile murder, it attacks her, and then someone makes an attempt on her life. Someone really doesn't want her to know what the dead have to say, and she'll have to work with mysterious homicide detective Falin Andrews to figure out why...

My Thoughts: Alex Craft is a grave witch. She can speak to the dead. In fact, she is set to make a witness appear from beyond the grave at a groundbreaking court trial. She needs the work. Her rent is overdue, her refrigerator is empty, and her Chinese Crested's vet bill for a broken leg still needs to be paid.

When she gets a call from her estranged sister to see if she can check out her boyfriend's shade to find out who killed him, she finds herself deep into a long-running fae plot. Her sister's boyfriend was the governor of Necros. She gets into the morgue by way of her friend John who is a homicide detective. He wants help identifying a body from a body dump. While she's there she'll get a look at the body her sister is interested in.

John's corpse rises screaming but Alex recognizes her as a fellow student at the wyrd academy her father sent her to when he disowned her because of her witchcraft. After all, her father is a leading proponent of the Humans First party in Necros and, since his daughter's boyfriend's death, he's the new governor.

At the morgue she also becomes haunted herself by a ghost who is claiming that the former governor stole his body twelve years ago. She also gets hit with a soul-stealing curse. And she meets the Falin Andrews who is a man of mystery in charge of the investigation into the governor's death.

This was an interesting urban fantasy mystery as she works with Falin to find out about the body stealing entity who impersonated the governor and is now in someone else's body. She has until the full moon to find the impersonator or she'll die and the impersonator's plan with bring devastation to Necros.

I liked Alex. I liked that using her grave magic had a cost. Using it too much makes her blind and has totally ruined her night vision. I liked that she learned some new things about herself and her family. I liked her relationship with Falin and her relationship with Death who is a collector of souls.

Favorite Quote:

He held up his hands, palm forward, and mouthed something, which could have been anything from "I'm sorry" to "please help."

One day I had to learn to read lips. But not today.

I bought this one March 12, 2011 and am rereading it. You can buy your copy here.