Wednesday, September 9, 2015

GRAVEYARD SPARROW by Kayla Bashe




Publisher: Torquere Press
Date published: 7/22/15
ISBN: 978-1-61040-948-3
Paranormal FF
E-book
Reviewed by Helen
Weblink: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=96&products_id=4435
Obtained via publisher
Rating: 4.5



By listening to people, or touching them, Katriona Sparrow can hear their thoughts. If she touches a dead body she can often help the police uncover the corpse’s last moments. But all the noise of people around her unnerves Katriona, making her want to hide out alone in the silence. Anthea Garlant is an unconventional witch who is called on to help Katriona recover after a bad case. And there’s a serial killer stalking beautiful women.


This is a great story with some excellent lines of almost poetic description as well as an intriguing world in old England. It’s not historical in that no date is given, but it’s a Victorian-ish world that includes magic and mages as a known and accepted part of life. The world is fascinating as it’s exactly what a reader might expect—and yet different.
The villain becomes obvious to the reader quite early in the story, but the tension remains high as the characters don’t know who it is. Both Katriona and Anthea are fully-fleshed out very realistic people with multiple layers and depths to them. They, too, are utterly fascinating as is the relationship that grows between them during the story. They kiss but there’s no sex in the book.

My only complaint about the editing is miniscule—a number of missed spaces which meant that the quotation marks for speech were facing the wrong way. However, that is a very minor thing, considering the great grammar, pace, and flow of the story.

This is a well-thought out and fulfilling story with a broad cast of characters, and an interesting world. Kudos to the author for managing so much in 34000 words. An excellent read with a powerful connection between the main characters and a great ending.


This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.


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