Greywalker (Greywalker, Book 1) | 
 enlarge | Author: Kat Richardson
Publisher: Roc Trade
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  81 reviews
Sales Rank: 225666
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 0.9
ISBN: 045146107X
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780451461070
ASIN: 045146107X
Publication Date: October 3, 2006
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Product Description
Harper Blaine was slogging along as a small-time P.I. when a two-bit perp's savage assault left her dead. For two minutes, to be precise. When Harper comes to in the hospital, she begins to feel a bit ...strange. She sees things that can only be described as weird-shapes emerging from a foggy grey mist, snarling teeth, creatures roaring. But Harper's not crazy. Her "death" has made her a Greywalker-able to move between our world and the mysterious, cross-over zone where things that go bump in the night exist. And her new gift (or curse) is about to drag her into that world of vampires and ghosts, magic and witches, necromancers and sinister artifacts. Whether she likes it or not.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 76 more reviews...
 Angieville: GREYWALKER November 1, 2008
Once again, the cover struck me first. She looked interesting to me. Like she knew things. And I liked the slanted city she leaned up against, looking like a character in its own right. I love it when a particularly city or a particular building is a main character in a story. The whole thing is that much richer for it. The good news is I wasn't wrong. Harper Blaine does, in fact, know things. Things she'd rather not know, as it turns out, but know things she does. And the Seattle of GREYWALKER is a dark, wet, teeming character, and you can tell Kat Richardson knows her way around the place and loves it for all its dark, wet, teemingness.
Harper Blaine is a P.I. who finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time and winds up dead. For two minutes. After she comes to in the hospital things are....different. Suddenly she sees shadows and outlines of figures who aren't there. At least not on this plane. And just like that, she's forced to accept a whole new worldview. One in which the creatures of nightmare and fairy tale drift along beside the living. They exist in an alternate plane known as the Grey and Harper is a greywalker, a mortal who can cross planes. What that ultimately means is up to Harper to find out. Fortunately, she has a few good friends to help her figure things out, including a witch, a ghost, a couple of vampires, and one extremely tall auctioneer with silver hair.
In case this description sounds like the last urban fantasy you read, let me dispel that thought. GREYWALKER reads like Raymond Chandler meets Charlaine Harris' Harper Connelly mysteries. The emphasis is on the noir, hardboiled private investigator about town. At first, the paranormal events are almost an afterthought. They come to play a much larger role as they begin to alter Harper's life, but the mystical never overshadows the gritty, real feel of the book. It was a nice surprise, different from what I was expecting, and I enjoyed getting to know Harper and how refreshingly adult she was about things--her job, her relationships. Not always trying to prove her worth to anyone and everyone who crosses her path. I look forward to following this series as it develops.
 Good read for fans of Jim Butcher October 4, 2008
This is a solid beginning for a very good series. "Greywalker" introduces you to your heroine Harper Blaine and the world of the Grey where shadows of history walk amongst us as "ghosts" without our knowledge. The Paranormal exists on a separate plane that few can see and even less enter and interact. Harper, a Private Investigator, finds that she can do just that after a brief brush with death. This is a tale of Harper and her journey to understand, accept and embrace the new world she is thrust into. She meets interesting people along the way (Vampires, Witchesand a necromancy, oh my) This book is well written but can at times get fairly scientific in its explanations of the physics of the Grey. Makes for a slower read since you have to "think" about what the characters are talking about. However, this by no means takes away from the story and plot line. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a mystery with alittle paranormal mixed in.
 Well..I finished it September 18, 2008
I guess I just didn't get it, because I really didn't like this book. There was so much going on, and nothing was connected with anything else that was happening. There are still some parts of the book where I'm not even sure what happened. The main character, Harper Blaine, wasn't likeable at all. She whines and refuses to do anything to help herself. I love reading, and I love paranormal stories, but I had to force myself to finish this one....and I really wish I hadn't.
G'walker Rvw September 17, 2008
Good read...a twist on the paranormal...I plan to buy more of the series. Good service from Amazon and their partner bookstores!
A semi-thoughtful, if not clinical, effort. September 9, 2008
The underbelly of Seattle is much more than just a mundane cache of small PI jobs, it is filled with a nether region that only the truly special, or the truly dead, can walk through.
After a brutal attack by a man she was investigating, Harper Blaine is rendered dead, just long enough to be touched by the Grey, and reformed into a Greywalker. It is neither a role she wishes to have, believe in or can control because the Grey is not some inert space, but active and alive with its own menacing and dark powers. Since Harper can exist both in and out of this strange ghost world, with a beast that patrols the edges, there are things, just as scary, that want to claim her as their tool,those who try to force her aid.
With the help of an wry but no-nonsense Irish witch, Mara, and her scholar husband, Ben, as well as a vampire college student, Cameron, whom she was hired to find in the first place, Harper is about to embark on the PI job of her life. Literally. Because, as the dark forces begin their machinations, Harper's, as well as all those connected with the Grey, from witches to vampires to ghosts, are all at mortal risk.
As far as urban dark fantasy and paranormal, Kat R does a believable and well-done first effort. But what it lacks is any personnel or intimate interaction with the reader and the character, as well as the characters within the story itself, romantic or otherwise. Character development is nil, despite a 180 turn of her life. Harper's new view on things is standard but even more so because we don't really learn how this really changes her life. We are told and given an account, a laundry list, of her activities and what she experiences with none of the emotional pull of having died then thrown into this harrowing, and dark world. This and this happens, but to no effect other than that she needs to do this in order to make this happen.
In other words. It's very bare bones emotionally, and tends to be more x, y, then z happens. While it has a creative element, because this Grey world is interesting and well formulated, it is not at all imaginative in its delivery. There is subdued horror at what Harper sees and experiences, but at times, it is abstracted and hard to 'see', though you get the general idea. I do have to say, that it is one of the better written stories I've read in a while. Her style is very unique and her voice, her telling, though clinical, is not wholly bad, just...a wee bit dull and lacking any fire or passion or excitement, even though there was a lot of action.
There were a few contradictions, or exegetic information that, while noticeable, is quite subtle. Almost like when she went back to edit, she cut out a few small things that helped with the overall flow of story. For instance, Harper's refusal to believe/accept the Grey yet can believe in witchcraft and witches, ghosts and vampires without any hesitation. I admit, there is some vague explanation, but it by no means resolves this contradiction which I think makes the story less tangible, considering it is an elemental part of the story itself. Also, secondary characters also seem to be in the know, either of the Grey world or of each other with little connecting thread as to how or why they're aware of the dark creeping things of the Grey. I suppose that'll come up later. It's not bothersome, it just makes your face scrunch up in wonder or confusion.
What makes this story more visceral was its location, Seattle WA, which was done well enough, though a map would have been nice if she describes real locations. I've never been to Seattle or WA Univ area, so I had little idea what she was trying to have me see until I looked it up.
Not bad, not great. There was a lot of thought about the mystery plot and structure of the story, with not enough attention to being thoughtful about the human/emotional element which is totally key to a great story; but for me, the writing saved it from being just a run on babble that usually makes me sigh with disappointment. It's enough for to seriously consider reading the second one. Though, maybe not straight away...
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