Every Which Way But Dead

Every Which Way But Dead (2005) Kim Harrison

It actually took me several weeks to read Every Which Way But Dead. It ended up in my jacket pocket for riding on the PRT and sitting in waiting rooms, so I was only reading a few pages at a time. However, I eventually reached a place where I didn’t want to read just a few pages at a time, because I wanted to know what happened, and read through huge chunks of the book at a time.

Every Which Way But Dead continues the story of Rachel Morgan, the earth witch who is living in an abandoned church Cincinnati with her living vampire and pixie partners Ivy and Jenks (and the pixie’s family).

Rachel is trying desperately to figure out how to escape her status as familiar with the demon Algaliarept, and is hired to protect Trent at a meeting between the top two drug lords in Cincinnati. She also continues to figure out her relationship with Ivy and her friend Kisten–as they try and hold together the Cincinnati vampires while Piscary sits in jail.

As hard of a time as I had getting into the first chapter of the first book in this series (I think it took me about a year) I quite enjoyed Every Which Way But Dead. As with previous books, the characters came alive, and the story pulled me in as I wanted to find out what happened with Rachel and Ivy and Jenks.

I also appreciated that the characters acted in real ways. Ivy and Rachel are still attempting to come to a living arrangement that won’t make them both crazy, and the people Rachel spends time with don’t all get along with each other, in a way that people don’t get along in real life.

I also like how there are consequences–good and bad–to the actions Rachel takes, and even a single action can have a variety of consequences as the action resonates differently with different people.

In other words, the characters had reactions that felt real.

As with the previous books, there are a good deal of sex in this book, however, knowing going in that there was going to be a good deal of boinking made it far less distracting. It also made more sense withing the context of the story, as Rachel has to come to terms with her various relationships, and how who she sleeps with is going to affect her friendships.

Although there was a large thread left hanging at the end of the book, the major story arcs were concluded, including one left over from previous books. And I didn’t actually mind the hanging thread that much, since it was one of those consequences I mentioned earlier, and it wasn’t a suspenseful thread–no one is in danger and there isn’t a huge mystery left hanging. It’s simply an issue of relationships, and needs the work that all relationships require.

All in all, I enjoyed Every Which Way But Dead far more than the previous two books in the series, and recommend it to those who like supernatural fantasy.
Rating: 7/10

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