Kari True Chronicles

Meet Kari True. You'll get along fine with her, as long as you obey the law. Because Kari is an officer of the Watch. Along with her colleagues, she's in charge of keeping the mean streets around the Palace in the City free of troublemakers, wrongdoers and crime, and when the bowstrings begin to sing, the arrows start flying, and the swords start swashing, she's usually there, right in the thick of the action. She's the one you'd want watching your back in a fight. Smart, sassy, and never afraid of a wisecrack, nevertheless Kari has a dark secret which she struggles even to acknowledge to herself sometimes - for Kari is a Demokin - part Demon. Her colleagues are used to her ways, of course, and long ago learned not to antagonize her – not unless you want to be outside, down in the street, picking up the pieces of your desk, and the pieces of the window she just threw it through. It takes cop banter to a new level and gives a whole new meaning to "Elf" and safety at work! Kari's Demon background comes in very useful when she's trying to combat evil, most of the time, but, in this gripping, fast-paced mystery, it also leads her into some very dark corners, some bad places, and some very strange situations, until she's not sure who to trust any more, especially if it's her own, half-demonic self. Involved in a case in which she discovers layer upon layer of deception, and forced to work with a snooty elvish lord who patronizes her every utterance, her investigation takes a dangerous turn into the underworld. Hell is ruled by the dragon Drac-Shemal, and his son Drac-Nazar, and Kari's attempts to crack this case will take her closer to the edge than she ever wanted to be, questioning the very essence of her existence. A fast-paced page-turning fantasy thriller that often reads like Law and Order crossed with Game of Thrones crossed with Lord of the Rings, this is Katherine Wood's first Kari True chronicle, of a planned trilogy.

If you've already met Kari True in her previous adventure, Blood in the Air, prepare to be reminded, and surprised. If not, you have a treat in store. This time around, Kari finds herself still partnered – some might say lumbered - with the snooty "special advisor", the elf Elathir Alaenrae, investigating the mysterious death of Aldwin Heathley, a student, or "apprentice" as they are known, in the Royal College of Magic. It was from one of its five forbidding black towers that Aldwin apparently spread his arms and dived to his rather messy doom, fifteen stories later. The decision to investigate Aldwin's death, one of four over a period of six months in the ranks of the apprentices, takes Kari on a trip to the country, escorting Prince Kevan on a journey to an estate which borders on Aldwin's family lands. Before she can gather much more in the way of evidence, her trip is cut short by an urgent message summoning her to return: her best friend Enrico has been assaulted and left for dead, giving Kari yet another case to investigate, but this time, not in an official capacity. From there on, things get worse. Many of us have had a fight on the way home from the pub, but probably not one against two zombies, which is what happens to Elathir and Kari. Somebody is causing the undead to rise and walk the streets, and controlling them from afar, in a bid to cause mayhem and chaos. Returning to the investigation of the College of Magic, Kari and Elathir stumble on more evidence which gives them the information they need to break open the zombie operation, and Captain Trollock orders a raid to pick up the culprits – which goes dramatically wrong, with fatal consequences, and which in turn leads to the shattering set-piece climax of the book, with staggering repercussions for all concerned. Throughout the book, Kari is also fighting two more battles, alongside the ongoing one against evil, in the form of zombies, murderers and assassins. Firstly she has to reconcile her burgeoning feelings for Elathir and also for Prince Kevan. But, perhaps more importantly, she is struggling with herself, in particular her dubious origins and the many unanswered questions they pose. Sombre, yet sometimes funny, pacy, fast-moving, yet often lyrical, once more, in Towers of Blood, Katherine Wood has again successfully merged the fantasy and police procedural genres and once more entertained and gripped us all with the exploits of the sassy, sparky, sarcastic and, sometimes, deadly, Corporal Kari True.