Book Review: As Lie the Dead

As Lie the Dead

By:  Kelly Meding

Publisher:  Bantam Dell Books

Publish Date:  July 2010

Genre:  Urban Fantasy

Format:  Paperback, 423pgs (pocket book size)

Series:  2nd book in Dreg City Series, Review for the 1st book; Three Days To Dead ~ HERE.

Recommendation:  YES!!! Don't wait any longer! Great non-stop action with fun characters and twists you won't see coming.

Book Synopsis:
Evangeline Stone, a rogue bounty hunter, never asked for a world divided between darkness and light...

...or the power to die and live again in someone else's borrowed body.  After a murder plot meant to take her out leaves an entire race of shapeshifters nearly extinct, Evy is gnawed by guilt.  So when one of the few survivors of the slaughter enlists her aid, she feels duty-bound to help - even though protecting a frail, pregnant shifter is the last thing Evy needs, especially with the world going to hell around her.  Amid weres, Halfies, gremlins, vamps - and increasingly outgunned humans - a war for supremacy is brewing.  With shifters demanding justice, her superiors desperate to control her, and an assassin on her trail, Evy discovers a horrifying conspiracy.  And she may be the only person in the world who can stop it - unless, of course, her own side gets her first.

First Sentence:
Deep red bled into the predawn sky above the defunct Olsmill Nature Preserve, and I didn't want to be around when the sun fully rose above the mountain treetops.

My Review and Summary:
We start exactly where Three Days to Dead ends.  Evy is leaving the field of the epic battle she just fought, along side Vampires and other Hunters and Handlers.  The battle appears to have taken its toll on all races involved, by the dead she sees around her.  This will affect the numbers of the Halfings, Goblins, and the Hunters as well.  The Halfings have now moved up on the enemy list to number 1 and Vampires are a temporary ally.  Evy just wants a weeks worth of sleep to make up her lack of sleep before the battle. 

Evy now takes on another mission to help save a Handler from the torture and eminent death at the hands of another race of creatures, to prove he is not the one guilty for the near extinction of a race of creatures in the city.  There's a debate of whether the Handler's are the murderers or not, since they take the order from the Brass and pass it on to the Hunters who do the chore.

But... Who is Evy to turn to when her boss's and her enemies both have tried to kill her... and succeeded the first time around?  Is there someone inbetween?

Evy now has to learn to handle Chalice's memories, good and bad, that are now ever present in her head and still popping up as she goes.  Then we also have those mysterious Owlkins.  Do you remember those?  They made a brief mention in Three Days to Dead.  Well, we learn a lot more of them in this book.  And they are really neat!

I have to admit right here at the beginning... I LOVED reading this book!  This is a second book in the Dreg Series, but it does NOT suffer the middle child syndrome at all.  This is a great book in its own.  This was one I could not and did not want to put down.  I was afraid I would miss out on action if I did, like I was watching a movie and couldn't leave the screen - not even for a commercial.

With the way Kelly picks up in this book she does NOT skip a beat.  In the first chapter, of 19 pages, I am right back to where I was at the end of the first book.  She brings up all the same thoughts and feelings for the characters easily here by the characters actions and the refresher I need.  Particularly for Evy and Wyatt, which surprised me to be right back to these feelings and thoughts so fast.  Then out of the blue... a brand new character that makes a big bang introduction!  I love this new character!  Amazing first chapter, very well done.  This chapter starts the frantic pace rolling from here, as it never stops with the story moving forward and the action.

The character relationships start to come to the surface more in this book.  I felt a better understanding of the Handlers here and even of the Hunters too.  I liked how the relationships between the characters grew.  Even that line between black and white for Evy starts to grow a little gray on the relationships with different Dregs and even her place in this world.

As the story progressed quickly, I accumulate my questions on the mystery of the story for a section of the book.  And they were the ones to keep me wanting more.  Then, I read through a section where I got answers that where accompanied with great action.  And more questions came in again, with an ending that answers these questions and pulls it all together.

The book is such a fast paced moving read!  Kelly never leaves us with a dull moment, with the action packed world Evy lives in.  Not only is there loads of action, but details of the different creatures in the Dreg world too.  And yes, you learn more on those all powerful Handlers.  And with learning of this world of Handlers and Hunters there is also room for growth toward possible future changes to the system.