This series just gets better and better (Where Demons Dare - Kim Harrison)

Member Name: ladybracknell

Product:	Where Demons Dare - Kim Harrison
Date:	05/06/09 (16 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: An absorbing and entertaining read

Disadvantages: You'll be left wanting to know what happens next

As far as paranormal/fantasy series go, this is one that just gets better and better. I enjoyed the first book in the Rachel Morgan 'Hollows' series, 'Dead Witch Walking', enough to buy the next and after that I was hooked. Like most series, there is a less-good book in there but it definitely isn't this one!

Over the course of the preceding five books, Kim Harrison has created a totally believable world approximately a hundred years in the future: a world populated not just by humans, but also by various species previously believed to exist only in fantasy. These inderlanders include the earth witch, Rachel Morgan, her friends and business partners, Ivy, the vampire, and Jenks, the pixie, along with an ever-growing cast of friends, enemies and those in-between.

Synopsis: To save the lives of her friends, Rachel did the unthinkable: she willingly trafficked in forbidden demon magic. And now her sins are coming back to haunt her. As Rachel searches for the truth behind a terrifying murder, an even greater menace threatens. For Algaliarept will stop at nothing to claim her, and the discovery of a shocking family secret throws Rachel's entire life into question. If she is ever to live free, she must first walk willingly into the demonic ever-after in search of long-lost ancient knowledge. But when you dance with demons, you lay your soul on the line.... And there are some lines that should never be crossed.

The first thing to say about this book is that in order to fully appreciate it, it is absolutely essential to have read the preceding five books in the series which are:

1. Dead Witch Walking
2. The Good, the Bad and the Undead
3. Every Witch Way But Dead
4. A Fistful of Charms
5. For a Few Demons More (aka The Outlaw Demon Wails)

There is also a seventh book just published (May 2009) White Witch, Black Curse, and hopefully Kim Harrison is already at work on book 8.

Although, at a pinch, this could be read as a stand-alone, readers may have difficulty in placing names and events covered in previous books. Kim Harrison has built her world of humans and inderlanders book by book. Such is her writing ability that the notion of a human population decimated by a virus caught from eating tomatoes, that has given them a terror of tomatoes in every shape and form, or of witches, warlocks, pixies and elves and an ever after populated by demons, is all totally believable.

'Where Demons Dare' is, in my opinion, the best book of this series to date. The characters are well developed, the story is gripping and moves at great pace with verve and humour. And I've learned much more about the personalities and motivations behind many of the characters and events from previous books.

I've just taken delivery of book 7 'White Witch, Black Curse' and can't wait to get reading more about Jenks, Ivy, Trent, Ceri, Al, Marshal and everyone else who lives in Rachel Morgan's wonderful world.

Summary: Another trip into the wonderful and exciting world of Rachel Morgan