Cauldron Borne aka Walking Dead
Ratings12
Average rating3.6
Freshly-minted shaman Joanne Walker was enjoying a moment of quiet in her usually-chaotic life—right up until vengeful ghosts possessed her partner-in-solving-mystical-crime, Detective Billy Holliday. With Billy’s life and soul on the line, Joanne is called to put herself between her friends and the legendary Black Cauldron’s powers to waken the dead...
...which might be somewhat easier if she wasn’t terrified of the undead.
Holding herself together in the face of spectral horrors is one thing. Holding a new relationship together is another—and even Joanne’s barely-acknowledged thing with her boss, Captain Morrison, may not be able to withstand the overwhelming power of the Wild Hunt, unleashed once again on Halloween, as the walls between worlds grow thin. Faced with the tantalizing Horned God, leader of the Hunt, and a personal life that’s falling apart, Joanne realizes saving Billy may mean sacrificing a world—or finding a way to heal wounds so old that not even the gods recognize them as injuries anymore.
And just to add insult to injury, the insurance company is trying to avoid paying for damages to Joanne’s beloved Mustang, Petite. Between the mundane problems and the supernatural threats, it’s starting to feel like no one’s getting out of this alive....
Publisher's Note: Cauldron Borne was originally published as Walking Dead, but the author always hated that title and has reverted it to her preferred title with the re-release of the series. The newly retitled edition contains the exact same story as the original book did.
Series
Featured Series
9 primary books13 released books#4 in Walker Papers
Walker Papers is a 13-book series with 9 released primary works first released in 2005 with contributions by C.E. Murphy, Mercedes Lackey, and Tanith Lee.
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
I've enjoyed the other Walker Papers novels, but Walking Dead definitely showed more depth and maturity than the earlier volumes. Both the author and her lead character have grown very nicely. It's refreshing to read a series that does not fall into the all-too-familiar paranormal romance formula!
Another thing I enjoy about this series is that heroine Joanne has a supporting ensemble of friends and coworkers who have their own talents and foibles, including a delightful married couple, a sexy father figure (who isn't related to anyone we've met so far), and an even sexier boss. This time around we were treated to the return of a character Joanne rescued in an earlier volume who has grown into some of her own ass-kicking abilities.
Joanne is far from perfect, but she doesn't make the same mistakes over and over again, which is a pet peeve of mine and occurs all too often in some other authors works. (There's consistency, and then there's refusing to learn from mistakes to the extent that I have to believe that a character is too stupid to live.)
There is a thread that ties all of the Walker Papers together, but C.E. Murphy is keeping things fresh enough that I, at least, am not getting bored. I would, however, caution that this is a series that is best read completely and in order. I began reading one of the novels without realizing that there had been a novella published between it and the previous one, and found myself well and truly confused. Walking Dead definitely is not a good starting point for the series! While a new reader wouldn't necessarily be completely lost, she would miss far too much of the magic.
