As Lie the Dead-Kelly Meding

As Lie the Dead
Kelly Meding
Dell, Jul 27 2010, $7.99
ISBN: 9780553592870

After waking up in someone else’s body on a slab in the morgue, Hunter Evy Stone’s first case was to solve who killed her and her still dead Triad partners (see Three Days to Dead). Evy still struggles with the memories and previous lifestyle of her new body; that of Chalice Frost while physically and emotionally healing from injuries and her own body's death.

The Assembly of Clan Elders wants all Triad members dead but especially Evy’s friend Rufus St, James for his leading their genocide attacks on the Owlkins people. Evy blames herself for the annihilation while she and her former handler Wyatt Truman try to prevent further carnage as they believe Brass is behind the assaults. Feeling some regret as to what happened to the shapeshifters due to what she believes were attacks on her, Evy vows to keep their survivors safe and take down Brass. As an assassin continues to target her and anyone in her sphere or even strangers by happenchance near her, she will soon realize how much she underestimated the problem.

The second Stone urban fantasy is a great thriller as the heroine further learns betrayal by those she felt in her previous life she could trust is the norm. Evy feels remorse that so many have died especially the shapeshifters all because someone wants her dead. This is her tale of learning how naive she once was as she peels away layers of a conspiracy that leaves her paralyzed with the shock of humanity’s brutality. Kelley Meding is a great storyteller.

Harriet Klausner