Underground
Kat Richardson
Roc, Aug 2008, $21.95
ISBN: 9780451462121

Private Detective Harper Blaine died for two minutes, but was resuscitated becoming a Greywalker; a person who can enter the paranormal realm and can see vampires, ghosts and revenants wandering the mundane world. Her client list consists of a who's who of otherworldly beings along side her mortal customers.

One day her homeless friend Quinton asks her to go with him to a place in the Seattle underground. There they see the body of a dead homeless person minus a leg that looks like it was chewed off. Within a small area several homeless men have recently been murdered with gnawing marks on their bodies; others have vanished. There is an obvious serial killer masticating on its victims mindful of similar homicides in 1949. Harper plans to learn what it is and how to stop it.

This powerful urban fantasy whodunit will appeal to fans of Charlaine Harris as the heroine is dedicated to her vocation, but laments the impact of being a Greywalker on her personal life; introducing your boyfriend to a ghost seems to have a dampening effect; worse is killing a zombie to free the spirit while your lover goes hysterical. There is a lot of action as the chewing killer leaves his bite in Seattle, but the tale is character driven by the protagonist as she goes from one escapade to another trying to end the UNDERGROUND murders.

Harriet Klausner