Grave Witch Review

Grave Witch (Alex Craft 1)

-          Kalayna Price

Publisher: UK – Berkley

As a private investigator and consultant for the police, Alex Craft has seen a lot of dark magic. But even though she’s on good terms with Death himself—who happens to look fantastic in a pair of jeans—nothing has prepared her for her latest case. Alex is investigating a high profile murder when she’s attacked by the ‘shade’ she’s raising, which should be impossible. To top off her day, someone makes a serious attempt on her life, but Death saves her. Guess he likes having her around...
To solve this case Alex will have to team up with tough homicide detective Falin Andrews. Falin seems to be hiding something—though it’s certainly not his dislike of Alex—but Alex knows she needs his help to navigate the tangled webs of mortal and paranormal politics, and to track down a killer wielding a magic so malevolent, it may cost Alex her life...and her soul.

The first in a new Urban Fantasy series introduces Alex Craft, a Grave Witch who can’t help raising shades and seeing the decay of everything when she uses her grave sight. When someone starts killing women in a ritualistic fashion and torturing their shades, Alex is determined to stop the killer but first she has to contend with a hostile detective, not to mention Death himself...

Alex has all the qualities I love in my heroines – she is smart, determined, independent and feisty. She is also isolated. She has friends and housemates, but she doesn’t confide in them. When she is attacked, hunted or injured – they worry and want to help her, but most of the time she is too busy getting into her next scrap to talk to them at all and they never know what is truly happening with her. There are reasons for this and by the end, there is some hints that her self-imposed isolation could end. She does have some very strong men in her life – her father, detective Falin Andrews, and the mysterious Death – all of which I want to know more about and leave plenty of room for future revelations.

The story is fast paced and a great mix of magic, investigation, intuition and politics. There isn’t a much time to pause as the action starts almost straight away and rarely slows down. I loved the world that Kalayna has created with the fae and magic out and used in police procedures. The city itself is built in one of the hidden spaces that opened when fae came out to the human world and magic resurged. It makes it unique with the use of magic and politics hot topics still in the world. There is so much potential in this world and with Alex - I can’t wait to see what will happen next!

Recommended for fans of Chloe Neill and Patricia Briggs. 8 put of 10.