This was the make or break book for me for this series. The first book, “Dead Witch Walking” showed promise but left me wondering if I really cared what happened to the main character, Rachel Morgan. The second book, “The Good, The Bad And The Undead” sealed the deal for me.

It is better written, faster moving and has a much better plot than the first book. It starts with an action scene, Rachel on a Run to capture… a koi? Fast action mixed with dry humour set the tone for the book. At least I thought it did. Then, about halfway through, things got darker and much, much better.

What cranked up the quality was the relationship between Rachel and her vampire roommate. In the first book, this had been stylish and cool and intriguing. In this book, it becomes central to the plot and becomes much more about an intense relationship between two strong women struggling with secrets kept and confidences betrayed.

In this book, Rachel has finally stopped whining and started to take responsibility for herself and deal with her situation. She starts to accept that she should be using her abilities as a witch and not just stumbling along.

Unfortunately, she does this just at the point that witches are being killed across the city.

Just about everything I learned in book one is revisited in a new context with more information and shifts into a new pattern. This is very well done and the final pattern is much stronger than I expected it to be.

The baddies in this book are less black and white and the goodies turn out not to be who or what we thought they were.

Overall, “The Good, The Bad And The Undead” is a step up from its predecessor and delivers a solid but still stylish piece of Urban Supernatural Fantasy.

As usual, Marguerite Gavin does an excellent job with the narration. Click on the SoundCloud link below to sample her delivery.

https://soundcloud.com/harpercollinspublishers/the-good-the-bad-and-the-undead-kim-harrison