Greywalker by Kat Richardson

I feel I need to start this review with a caveat - I really did like it a lot. So if I appear to contradict myself later please bear this in mind.

Greywalker tells the story of Harper Blaine a private investigator who dies for two minutes after she is savagely beaten during the course of an investigation. When she comes round in the hospital, she begins to realise she has changed. She's now able to see and experience the Grey, a mysterious zone that exists between our world and the next. And it's something she has to learn to deal with quickly, because the creatures that exist in the Grey are not about to wait for her to find her feet.

I started this book sure I wasn't going to like it, I don't know why...Does anybody else ever have that - an unreasonable bias with no explanation? You pick the book up off your TBR pile and can't remember what on earth possessed you to buy it in the first place. It can be a cover issue, but I thought the cover was fine. Anyway, I digress...

So I was pleasantly surprised when in the space of the first few pages I was hooked. Kat Richardson starts Greywalker with a bang - an incredibly realistic sequence of Harper being beaten where you virtually wince with every punch. The story engaged me for the majority of the book, there were points where I didn't want to put it down - always a good sign :) . Her characters are well written, each of them individuals with their own agendas that may or may not be beneficial for Harper; Quinton - the mystery man, Mara and Ben - the happy couple with the baby and several Machiavellian vampires (one who was beyond creepy). As a first novel it impressed me.

I was really torn about what grade to give this book as it drew me in so completely, but there were a couple of things that didn't work for me. The characters use the word OK far too much, this seems a petty point but if you read the book you'll understand what I mean. And it's written as OK so it really jumps out at you. I hate the thought of writing in books but at one point I seriously considered scribbling the OK's out as I came across them. I think Ms. Richardson should maybe limit herself to five okay's in the next book.

I also felt the plot kind of petered out in the end, and I was left wondering why a couple of characters had been included. One of the things I enjoyed was how as everything slowly slotted together, events began to take on a momentum of their own, and yet these two characters just didn't seem to fit. But maybe this was intentional and will be dealt with in a future part of the series and we're meant to wonder that?

This is probably more of a PI novel with an urban fantasy twist, so I think you'll enjoy it more if you like the private detective genre - fans of Charlaine Harris's Grave series might want to give it a try. Greywalker did leave some questions unanswered, I'm very interested in Quinton's story, so I hope he'll be making an appearance in the next book - Poltergeist which is scheduled for release in August 2007. And I will be picking it up, because I liked this one a lot.