AN EASY DEATH by Charlaine Harris – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

An Easy Death by Charlaine Harris
Series: Gunnie Rose #1
Published by Saga Press on October 2 2018
Genres: Adult, Urban fantasy
Pages: 336
Format: Finished hardcover
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A lovable heroine who can shoot like nobody’s business, a harsh, post-apocalyptic world, and plenty of action make this an excellent start to a new urban fantasy series.

I’m so happy I decided to take a chance on Charlaine Harris’ latest. I read the second book in her Midnight, Texas series and although I enjoyed it, I felt it was slow-paced and not as interesting as I hoped. But An Easy Death left me giddy, and I cannot WAIT to read the next book in the series. In fact, I would say that protagonist Lizbeth Rose has become one of my favorite main characters ever, and I hope this turns into a long-term series, as I just know Harris has many more adventures in store for her!

Nineteen-year-old Lizbeth Rose is a “gunnie,” a gun-for-hire who makes her living escorting groups of people across the barren and dangerous stretches of New America. After the assassination of Franklin Roosevelt and the subsequent death of the Vice President, the United States has fallen prey to a series of calamities, including influenza, drought, and ultimately the breakdown of all social and political infrastructures, leading to complete chaos. Other countries have swooped in and taken over big chunks of the country, including the Russians, who have settled in California and Oregon and claimed the land as the Holy Russian Empire. Borders are no longer clear, and life in general has reverted back to the lawlessness of the Old West.

When a routine job escorting a group of farmers to a town in New America goes completely south, and Lizbeth’s crew is killed and her charges kidnapped by bandits, she knows she’s going to need a break when she finally gets home. But unfortunately for Lizbeth, that’s not going to happen. A couple of grigoris—Russian wizards—named Paulina and Eli want to hire her to protect them while they search for a man who could be the key to healing the ailing Russian Emperor, and although Lizbeth doesn’t trust grigoris in the slightest, she really needs the job, so she agrees to accompany them on their journey. But things quickly change when she discovers that the man they are searching for is none other than her father, Oleg Karkarov. Before she knows it, Lizbeth is knee-deep in trouble, and as the reason Paulina and Eli are searching for Oleg becomes frighteningly clear, she realizes that she needs to keep the secret of her relationship to Oleg from them no matter what.

You know you’re going to fall hard for a character when, in the first scene of the story, she chops off her long, curly hair because her boyfriend is so obsessed with it. Seriously, that’s my kind of girl! Lizbeth was such a great character, and she’s clearly got her priorities straight. Her favorite possession in the world is her 1873 Winchester rifle that she calls Jackhammer, and she treats it like it’s her baby. She’s one of those kick-ass female characters who seems to be popping up more and more in speculative fiction, but I thought Harris did a great job of making her unique. She’s a cold-blooded killer, but it’s out of necessity because of the world she lives in. There are dangers around every corner, and Lizbeth takes her job as gunnie very seriously. But she’s also got a soft side. She’s very close to her mother, Candle Rose, who has raised her single-handedly, and although she’s only in the story for one or two scenes, I loved their relationship.

One of Charlaine Harris’ strengths is her character development, and I enjoyed many other characters in An Easy Death, even when they only appear briefly. We meet Lizbeth’s short-lived fellow gunnies Tarken, Galilee and Martin in the first chapters, and I immediately connected with Galilee and was quite disappointed when she met her fate. Near the end of the story we meet a girl named Felicia that might be Lizbeth’s sister, and I’m hoping Harris brings her back in the next book because I just know there’s more to that story. My other favorite character turned out to be Eli, one of the Russian grigoris, and there is a bit of a romance going on between him and Lizbeth, although it certainly isn’t the focus of the story, and calling it a “romance” is actually a stretch. But Eli grew on me, especially at the end when he does something wonderful for Lizbeth. The sexual tension between them was awfully entertaining, I have to admit.

The other reason I loved this story so much was the world building. I had no idea when I picked it up that this would be an alternate history, post apocalyptic story, but that’s exactly what it was. Harris goes into detail about what happened for things to get so bad, and she really makes life tough for her characters. Lizbeth lives in her own place, but she barely has running water and she doesn’t have electricity at all. Owning a refrigerator is a luxury, and it just isn’t in the cards for Lizbeth. Even finding food is a challenge at times, and the scenes where she, Paulina and Eli are trying to make it across open land without getting killed are pretty harrowing.

The use of magic is very subtle and it really isn’t the main focus of the story, but I thought it was well done. The grigoris are able to do things like kill or injure people with gestures, do spells of protection and even heal injuries. We learn some interesting things about Lizbeth’s heritage and the reason she can “smell” magic. There’s also a magical reason for tracking down Oleg, but overall the use of magic doesn’t really drive the story.

An Easy Death was packed full of action, and I worried about the characters throughout the entire story. Lizbeth is constantly being injured, shot at and attacked by grigoris. She goes without baths and clean clothes and sleep and food, and I could feel every single pain she felt. I sincerely wanted her to make it home to her own bed and take a really long nap, and I’m pretty sure that’s exactly how she felt too!

If you’re a Charlaine Harris fan, you are going to have so much fun with this book. And even if you aren’t, I hope you’ll take a chance and get to know Lizbeth, she’s pretty awesome.

Big thanks to Wunderkind PR and the publisher for supplying a review copy.