Title: The Secrets of Life and Death
Author: Rebecca Alexander
Rating: Four Stars
I was initially a little spectacle when I began this book. I thought for sure it would dissolve into a trite vampire book. It is however, anything but. The storyline is actually very original and different. Two story lines are interwoven, making this book both historical fantasy and urban fantasy. I think all-together the book holds more of an urban feel.
We follow Jack, a regular English woman, despite the whole "being dead" thing. Her life has been suspended in the moment of her dying-- and she is living on borrowed time. Her life was preserved by ancient magic administered by her caretaker Maggie. Now Jack is trying to save another young girl with that same magic. Her life is complicated by a man named Felix. Felix is looking into the death of a girl Jack previously tried to save. He is a professor of archaic magic who consults for the police. It isn't long before Felix and Jack are wrapped up in a much larger conflict.
Our other story line follows Edward Kelley and his master Dee, an alchemist and occultist. They are in Poland trying to save the life of the king's niece. They soon get in over their heads in dark and evil magic. Dee and Kelley are faced with only two options, preform the dark magic or be killed.
The two stories are linked through time and magic. As the story unfolds you get a clearer picture of the evil that will unfold because of Dee and Kelley.
The story has characters that are Catholic, Protestant and those who practice various forms of witchcraft. I was glad to see that the book didn't turn into some sort of theological bashing on any belief system. The "bad guy" is clearly the woman sucking the life out of innocent people. I thought the Author navigated that very well.
The place where this book falls a little short for me was the characters. I liked all the characters fine, I just felt like they were lacking in some depth. Jack especially seemed a little wooden. I think a little extra character building would have taken this book to a whole new level.
Even though the book dealt with some of the old fantasy tropes, the author weaved these things into a entirely new and original story. With two different storylines interwoven, it could have felt choppy or confusing. However, the author deftly binds this story together.
