Book Review: Living with the Dead

Meet the smart, sexy — supernatural — women of the otherworld.

The men and women of the Otherworld live unseen among us. For the most part, mere mortals never suspect their existence—and that’s the way they want it. But now a reckless killer has torn down the wall between our worlds, trapping one very vulnerable, and very mortal, woman in the supernatural cross fire.

Robyn Peltier moved to Los Angeles shortly after her young husband’s sudden and unexpected death. Her hope was that her hectic new life as the PR consultant to a spoiled celebutante would provide a distraction from her grief. But when her client is murdered, Robyn finds herself on the run as the prime suspect. And as more bodies pile up around her, it seems only her friend, tabloid journalist Hope Adams, is on her side.

But Hope and her somewhat spooky boyfriend Karl know it’s just a matter of time before Robyn is caught. For she’s gotten herself in the middle of a turf war between two Otherworld races who’ll spill any amount of blood—human and inhuman—to protect what they consider theirs for eternity. And the only way Hope can save her friend is by letting her enter a world she’s safer knowing nothing about.

Hope is back in Living with the Dead, book nine in the Women of the Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong. Her first book (Personal Demon) was unusual, what with the fact that she co-narrated the novel. This book has five points of view. But not first person. This is the only novel to date that Kelley has written in third person. The five points of view include Hope, Finn, Robyn, and clairvoyants Adele and Colm.

Hope’s best friend Robyn, a human, is caught up in a supernatural life and death situation. She’s the target of a community of clairvoyants. Up until now, we’ve rarely seen clairvoyants. We know they exist, but like the werewolves in the beginning, they live in a world, separate from other supernaturals. They’re dying out, and they want to preserve their bloodlines and only mate with other clairvoyants. As they’ve reproduced with humans and other supernaturals, their powers have decreased as generations passed.

Honestly, my favorite part of this book was the clairvoyants. Most of the time, a clairvoyant’s power is to see the future. Not so in this world. If one of them has an article of your clothing, a necklace or ring, or any other personal item of yours, they can see through your eyes. They see what you see. Which makes it awfully hard to escape when one is coming after you. Which just happens to be Robyn’s dilemma.

But if she’s on the run from cops who think she killed her client, why are clairvoyants after her? She has only one person, her best friend Hope, on her side. Well… Hope and her good-for-nothing (my opinion) boyfriend, Karl Marsten. I enjoyed Hope and this book much more than the previous installment. Living with the Dead is so different from the rest of the series it really stands out from the others. It takes a really good writer to keep things just as exciting as we near the double digit mark in a series.