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Book Review: Saint Death’s Daughter by C.S.E. Cooney

Cover art fo Saint Death's Daughter by C.S.E. Cooney

Saint Death’s Daughter by C.S.E Cooney.

Solaris, 2022

ISBN-13: 978-1786184702

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook. ( Bookshop.org  |   Amazon.com )

 

 

Miscellaneous Stones, born into a family known for its violence in service to the crown of Liriat, is a teenage necromancer with an allergy to violence that opens “echo wounds” when violence is done or described. When her parents die, her family is left indebted to a banker’s family with connections to Liriat’s enemy, the Blackbird Bride.

 

Lanie’s sister Nita returns to renegotiate the debt, and does so by agreeing to work for the Queen of Liriat to kill all 24 of the Bride’s consorts. Nita has returned with an unwilling fiance, a gyrgard, who can shapeshift into a falcon and usually has a soul-bonded partner. The gyrgard, renamed Mak, attempts to poison himself rather than stay with Nita, but Lanie, unwilling to experience the echo wound that would be caused by his suicide, brings him back by calling on Saint Death, one of the 12 Lirian gods.

 

In order to prevent having his memories wiped, Mak swears loyalty to Nita, and they have a child, Datu, who is raised primarily by Lanie and Mak, while Nita assassinates the members of the Bride’s parliament. Finally, the Bride kills Nita, pronounces a death sentence on Datu, and tries to seduce Lanie into joining her court. Lanie, Mak, and Datu, along with the family revenant and the entrapped ghost of Lanie’s necromancer grandfather, flee to hide in the city of Liriat Proper to protect Datu.

 

In the city, Lanie, Mak, and Datu make truly good friends willing to help with their problems. Lanie also has a romance with Canon Lir, second son of the queen, and a priest to the many-gendered god of fire. Then Lanie has a serious echo wound in public that reveals their location to the Blackbird Bride, and Mak and Datu flee. Lanie has made a promise to her family’s revenant she must follow through, protect Datu, and bring down the Bride.

 

I know Harrow the Ninth is the big name in literary necromancers right now, and she’s a much more horror-tinged character, but Lanie is my favorite necromancer character ever. Compassionate and loving to the living, dead, and undead, sometimes unwise, she honors her goddess.The allergy to violence and refusal to enthrall others, and her relationship with Lir, make her unusual.

 

This is a long book, but with surprising twists, fascinating world building, great character development, and beautiful prose. Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Posted on February 25, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: Crime Scene: Poetry by Cynthia Pelayo

Cover art for Crime Scene: Poetry by Cynthia Pelayo

Crime Scene: Poetry by Cynthia Pelayo

Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2022

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1947879515

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition ( Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com  )

 

This collection follows up Into the Forest and All the Way Through, a collection of poems about missing and murdered women and girls from all 50 states intended to bring the victims of cold cases to light without exploiting them.

 

Crime Scene is a more straightforward story. It’s a narrative in verse of the discovery and investigation of a cold case leading to the capture of a serial killer, using a format of numbered “reports”. It explodes on impact and immediately crashes into the parents’ grief on notification, then backtracks to the discovery of the crime scene and body by a brother and sister. Then we meet our protagonist, Agent K, whose investigation is complicated by her history as a witness to the disappearance of a friend when she was a girl, leading to guilt, insomnia, and a drive to solve the case. Much of the story explores both her actions and mental state.

 

Pelayo also addresses issues with reporting on true crime. Report 0011 comments on exploitation, and Report 0054, the medical examiner’s report, interestingly is nonspecific in describing the age, race, and ethnicity of the victim, avoiding the trap of “white girl” syndrome.

 

Crime Scene is a lyrical, powerful, surreal exploration of the justice system, its failures, and the human consequences. Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Posted on February 20, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: Dogs by Mike Sullivan

Cover art for Dogs by Mike Sullivan

Dogs by Mike Sullivan

Muddy Paws Press, 2022

ISBN: 9798986056913

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition ( Amazon.com )

 

Dogs is one of those little novellas that work fine for a quick blast of excitement that requires no thinking.  At only 114 pages double-spaced, any reader will be through it in an hour or two.  There’s no real character development, no twisting plot, but it does have excitement and a touch of gore, and that’s really all readers are looking for in something this short.  For a quick shot of diversionary reading, Dogs rolls over and does the trick.

 

The plot: Tom comes home to visit his parents, who live in a gated community.  The family dog goes crazy and tries to attack him, and Tom quickly finds out that all the dogs in the neighborhood have gone canine-crazy and now regard humans as fleshy Milk-Bones.  Tom needs to survive and escape.  The end. 

 

That’s all there is, and that’s all that’s needed.  Again, this is just action.  It’s kind of like the old Jean-Claude Van Damme films: you never watch them for anything deep, you just want ass-kicking and excitement.  That’s what Dogs delivers.  There is plenty of bloodshed between the dogs, Tom, and a couple neighbors, and the author writes the attack sequences well enough to keep reader interest up, it’s not just ‘the dog mauled and killed the person’, though. There are some face-offs and tactics in the human vs. dog duels. This isn’t totally brainless: it’s just meant to tear along at a good pace, and it does that just fine.  There are plenty of unanswered questions by the end of the book, so don’t expect a wrap-up that explains everything.  Obviously, if you love dogs and can’t stand fiction that involves them getting hurt, you may want to skip this (even though they are bad dogs).  

 

File this one in the category of “fast reads that involve nature biting back”. Alongside other books of that ilk, such as Grizzly and The Roo, the novella Dogs will fit in just fine.   Worth it for the quick fun.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on February 14, 2023 by , Reply
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