Greywalker (Greywalker, Book 1): Kat Richardson

Seattle PI Harper Blaine was just doing her job when a lowlife decided to assault her in his office and she ended up dead...for two minutes. May not seem like a long time but when she wakes up in the hospital, she begins feeling a little weird (OK, a lot weird.) To add to her confusion, she's also seeing odd shapes shrouded in a gray fog. And hearing things that really shouldn't be -- something resembling a snarling beast dead set on eating her alive.

She's not mad as a hatter, though. She's turned into a Greywalker, with the ability to move between this world and another world...the Grey. And what dwells there is the stuff of nightmares: vampires... ghosts...everything bump-in-the-night...

She doesn't like it one bit, but she needs to cope or she won't survive -- either in this world or the other. In order to get some sort of foothold, she turns to Ben and Mara Danzinger for help. They may be college professors, but their "hobbies" are a little off kilter. Ben's a part-time parapsychologist and Mara is a witch. Unfortunately, no one has a real grasp on what the Grey really is, or what happens there. Harper doesn't want to have any part of it, but what's a girl to do?

She does what she knows best: go back to doing her job. She takes on an odd case involving a parlor organ; a so-called “family heirloom.” Harper hits a dead end and her last lead is with an auction house, charged with an estate sale of one of the former owners of this ugly damned thing. It's a dry endeavor but she meets a strikingly handsome antiques dealer, Will Novac, and sparks begin to fly.

In the meantime, Harper is also charged with a puzzling missing persons case. College student Cameron Shadley has disappeared into the night, and very wealthy Mama wants him found. But what Harper finds isn't what anyone expected. Cam's involved with some very shady characters -- of the fanged variety. Getting himself into the situation wasn't hard, but getting him out again may kill them both.

This debut novel is impressive and has quite a few strong points going for it. The characters are a complex crew. On one side, Ben, Mara, and one awesomely talented geek are warm, lovable and quirky. The villains are despicable -- there is no such things a cuddly vampire in this tale -- and yet utterly fascinating in an evil sort of way.

Harper has more than a touch of Bogart in her soul, using plain old gumshoe detective work to solve the mystery at hand (with a little help from the Grey.) With this personality, watching her evolution into a Greywalker is a handful since she's a little single-minded in her refusal to believe in the Grey. The mystery behind the entire plot line is well constructed, keeping me on the edge until the final third of the book when finally the author relents and gave me the keys to the secret. There is even a romance in bloom with a sexy antiques dealer (now there's a refreshing choice!) but the author doesn't muck everything up with unnecessary sex scenes.

However, there are sticking points too. As the novel progresses, Harper becomes less the sympathetic heroine and more of a whiner that grated on my nerves like fingernails on a chalkboard. Her strength is constantly being sucked down, she's tired, she's cold, she's nauseous, she's cold, etc...all right already. I get the idea. Basically she needed a hard smack upside the head and just in the nick of time -- before I completely lost interest -- she got exactly that.

The premise of the Grey and how it works is unusual and the explanations and descriptions (or lack thereof) is confusing. The author chooses to describe the Grey as misty, foggy, cold, foggy, stinking, gray, foggy, cold, smelly, misty, gray...did I mention it was foggy? I know it's an odd place, but I had the distinct impression Harper had mistakenly transported herself from Seattle to London and forgot to pack her Pepto.

About midway into the book, the plot takes a fast turn. The rapid action isn't a drawback, but there are way too many bad guys, way too many hidden (and blatant) agendas, and way too many unexplained weird things happening. With so much going on, it clutters up the landscape.

Taking everything into account, this really is a good starter for the series. There are plenty of goodies to be had for fans of this genre, and a gaggle of interesting characters to keep your interest. Granted, in places the execution missed the mark, but sometimes getting the mix just right takes more than 300 pages will allow, and there are all sorts of loose ends left to make reading the sequel, Poltergeist, well worth my time.

Publisher: Roc Trade (October 3, 2006)
ISBN-10: 045146107X
ISBN-13: 978-0451461070
Buy the Book