Title: Underground Series: Greywalker #3
Author: Kat Richardson
Published: August 4, 2009
Genre(s): Urban Fantasy
Page Count: 354
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:In the cold of winter, Pioneer Square's homeless are being butchered, and zombies have been seen roaming the streets of the underground city buried beneath modern Seattle. Greywalker Harper Blaine is asked to investigate by her friend Quinton, who fears he may be implicated in the deaths. They soon discover that someone has unleashed a monster of ancient legend- and H arper must deal with both the living and the dead to find the creature and put a stop to it...unless it stops her first.
When I first heard about the Greywalker series, I was told that the first few books start off shaky and uncertain, but by the third book, Richardson hits her stride. So I started reading about Harper Blaine’s paranormal investigations with lowered expectations and the intent to stick things out—no matter how bad they got—until at least book three. And that’s what I did, and I am so glad. The series was decent up until this point, but with Underground, it’s like someone flipped a switch. Every area sees massive improvement, and while this book still wasn’t the best, it was much better than the two books that came before it.
Probably the first major change I noticed about Underground was the shift in Harper’s personal life. For the first two books, she dated Will, a conservative guy whose logical outlook on life would doubtless not be compatible with Harper’s ability to see the paranormal side of life. And in the meantime, the mysterious Quinton has been hovering in the background—it was never a love triangle, but any reader could see that Harper’s chemistry and camaraderie with Quinton was miles ahead of her chemistry with Will. In Underground, Quinton becomes personally involved in the case, rather than just being an occasional helping hand; also, Will dumps Harper because he’s really freaked out by her dismantling a zombie. This has a two-fold effect on the readability of the book. First, Harper’s annoying, terrible romance is no longer an issue—I never had any idea what she saw in Will. Second, Quinton is much more present as a character, and regardless of his romantic relationship with Harper, he’s a great, bantery character who’s just a lot more interesting than Will all around. Plus, he’s completely clued into the existence of the Grey and Harper’s special abilities, so Harper doesn’t have to lie to her new boyfriend.
Another area that sees marked improvement in Underground is Richardson’s writing. If you’ve read my previous reviews for the series, you’ll note that I made several comments on the author’s poor word-choice and messy sentences. That is no longer an issue here. Sure, I still wouldn’t write home about the prose in this book, but it was a lot less strange/awkward that it had been before.
Beyond that, the storyline itself was fast-paced and engaging, with multiple angles that come together. Homeless people in downtown Seattle keep turning up dead or missing, and Quinton suspects that something strange is going on. He enslists Harper’s super-special services, and they uncover a Native American serpent-monster who’s gotten loose. There’s also some intrigue concerning the NSA and Quinton’s past, as well as a ghost who’s been haunting a friend of Harper’s. I loved that there was a lot going on in Underground, and I thought that it all came together nicely. The Native folklore, for instance, could have been really hokey or badly done, but I think it was obvious that Richardson had done her research.
Barring any future complications, I can certainly see myself joining Harper and riding along for the rest of this series. Kat Richardson really found her stride with Underground, and even though this book wasn’t amazing, it was still a lot of fun and a pleasure to read. As a whole, I find urban fantasy novels to be supremely entertaining, and this book was no different.
