Book Review: Grave Ransom by Kalayna Price

Grave Ransom
Author: Kalayna Price
Series: Alex Craft (Book 5)
Publication: Ace (July 4, 2017)

Description: In the thrilling new novel from USA Today bestselling author Kalayna Price, Alex Craft comes face-to-face with the walking dead….

Grave witch Alex Craft is no stranger to the dead talking. She raises shades, works with ghosts, and is dating Death himself. But the dead walking? That’s not supposed to happen. And yet reanimated corpses are committing crimes across Nekros City.

Alex’s investigation leads her deep into a web of sinister magic. When Briar Darque of the Magical Crimes Investigation Bureau gets involved, Alex finds herself with an unexpected ally of sorts. But as the dead continue to rise and wreak havoc on the living, can she get to the soul of the matter in time?

My Thoughts: Alex Craft has been made an independent fae for a year and a day which gives her some time to figure out how to make her independent status permanent. Now, she and her partner Rianna are trying to establish their private investigation business. Alex is trying to limit the amount of shades she raises because a side effect of her magical talent is blindness. She has already lost her night vision and the bouts of blindness after raising shades are getting longer and her vision isn't bouncing back.

When she and Tamara are lunching and she sees a dead man walking she has found her next puzzle. Following him reveals even more of mystery. He's on his way to rob a magical museum of a magical artifact but Alex, who ends up caught with him in a trap, learns that there is a soul in his body. Releasing it shows her that it isn't his soul but before she can question the ghost a soul collector claims it. Alex is left with a dead body and questions from the police.

She also has business. One couple wants to hire her to find the ghost of their six-year-old daughter who died of a blood disease. Alex tries to convince them that most souls move on and only those with compelling reasons become ghosts. They aren't eager to accept this and leave in a huff. Her next client is high school senior Tiffany who is looking for her missing boyfriend Remy. While Alex thinks it is most likely that this was Remy's way to break up with his high school girlfriend, she takes the case and asks Rianna to make a tracing spell.

Meanwhile, Briar Darque has come to hang around with Alex because her partner has a premonition that something is going to happen. Since prior occasions when Briar showed up put Alex in a lot of danger, she's hoping the premonition is wrong. Briar is under the impression that a necromancer - a very illegal kind of magic - is working in Nekros City.

The tracking spell leads Alex all over Nekros City and the surrounding area. She wonders if it is working correctly when it seems to be leading her in two directions. Finally, she finds Remy's body in the midst of a bank robbery but the soul isn't Remy's. Before she can question the ghost, soul collectors arrive and send it on. This is setting up a major conflict between Alex and her boyfriend Death who is a soul collector.

This is the book when Alex's relationship with Death comes to a crisis point. They haven't a way to reconcile their very different needs and responsibilities. This is hard for Alex because she has known Death since she was five. Long before he became her lover, he was her confidant and best friend.

This was a great episode in this series. Alex is learning new things about her new and rather unique power.

Favorite Quote:

"I'm the lead medical examiner for Nekros City, and I can tell you with ninety-nine point nine percent certainty that the man walking down the street is very much alive." She put extra emphasis on the word "walking," and on any other day, I would have agree with her.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.