This Witch for Hire: Dead Witch Walking and The Good, the Bad, and the Undead

i read this book right after "guilty pleasures" by laurell k hamilton. Picked it up by chance in a used book store. though i enjoyed "guilty pleasures" and plan on continuing that series, this book wasn't as dark. loved jenks the pixy and his whole family. looking forward to reading more of these books, since all questions haven't been answered. especially want to know if rachel and trent end up having more of a relationship.

I usually don't read this type of book. I'm more into female sleuth and cozy mysteries, but after reading the Charlaine Harris vampire mysteries (now on HBO called True Blood), and loving them, I decided to try this series. I'm sure glad I did. I have read every one of them straight through and can't wait til the next one. My daughter says she can't believe I read these since I don't believe in vampires, witches, werewolves, etc, but if I believed in them, I don't think I could read the books about them. I'd be too scared! This series has people you can relate too (yes, even the vampires), and I love that little pixy family. Since pixies only live for 20 years, I'm just dreading the thought they will die in one of the stories....I know it's fiction but I'm becoming so fond of them. There's humor which keeps me reading them. And believe it or not this witch isn't afraid of poking fun at the everafter characters...even when they threaten to send her to the everafter. Don't let the cover picture on dust jacket throw you. The main character is completely serious and very likeable. Hey, you'll even like the vampires and all the rest of the characters you always heard was so bad. Okay, maybe I'm reading them for the humor but what the heck, I have to have some reason to tell to my daughter or she will think I'm becoming "weird" (her favorite word). Here's one example of the humor in the book...it kind of sneaks up on you. The main character, Rachel, the witch is going after some bad guys and she leaves the house with her splat gun (which contains sleeping potions, she's not allowed a real gun) with her pixy partner on her shoulder (he's 6 inches tall and carrying his teeny sword). She hikes up her britches and thinks, "yes, we bad." A one liner that tickled my fancy.

Dead Witch Walking and The Good, The Bad, And The Undead is in this Omnibus edition. There's another Omnibus edition called Dead Witches Tell No Tales which includes Every Which Way But Dead and A Fistful of Charms. Never read it. 'This Witch for Hire' was nothing like I've ever read before. It was funny, it was unigue. I do not like vampires, zombies. Not crazy about witches either but I do like fantasy. Some fantasy that is. I don't care for all that swash buckling swords and sorcery stuff. I do like Urban Fantasy tho I've never read much of it. I'm open for recommendations.... please. The only thing I didn't care for was the the waaaay over-the-top handling of Rachel's fear of her business partner Ivy, a living vampire. The blood lust thing. The homosexual thing, if you can call it that? Jenks the pixie is the real star. I hope Jenks never dies. BUT unfortunatly I just found out last night while reading "The Outlaw Demon Wails" that pixies only live 20 yrs. and Jenks wife is close to dying. So Jenks must be close as well. ------------ I liked the first half of Tanya Huff's Stealing magic, Hobb, Robin, Some of Bujold, Lois McMaster were ok. Gaiman, Neal of course. T. Pratchett, Tolkien, T.Brooks early Shannara, Katharine Kerr I can' remember but I don't think so. R. Scott Bakker, Raymond E. Feist, Martin, George R.R are too much for me. I don't like Wilson, F. Paul, Cook, Glen, Foster, Alen Dean, Dekker, Ted, Wolfe, Gene, Zahn, Timothy, Pullman, Philip, Jim Butcher

This books is a two book compilation: Dead Witch Walking, and The Good, The Bad, and The Undead. The writer, Kim Harrison, combines horror, gothic, detective and fantasy genres, effectively producing 2 greatly entertaining stories. She creates a world where witches, vampires, pixies, fairies, werewolves, trolls, et al are common. In fact, due to a tomato virus plague that wiped out most of the humans, the supernatural creatures now outnumber humans. Our story heroine is a witch bounty hunter private detective who is partnered with a female vampire and a male pixie. In the first book, she resigns from a federal agency and immediately gets on the agency's assassinate list. In the second book, somebody (or thing) is killing witches and our heroine has to solve the murders, make a living, as well as keep her vampire partner from eating her. Highly recommended.