C. E. Murphy

"Thunderbird Falls" delivered exactly what I was looking for this weekend: relaxing, escapist, entertainment that demanded nothing much from me except the suspension of disbelief and a willingness to open my imagination to astral plane encounters.

"Thunderbird Falls" follows on from "Urban Shaman". It deals with Joanne Walker trying to come to terms with being a Shaman when her preference is just to be a mechanic and not to believe in anything magical.

I liked the development of the show more relationships Walker established in the first book: the 70 taxi driver with charisma and good humour, her love-hate there's-more-to-me-than-you-know Police Captain and her I-wear-nail-polish-because-I-like-it-and-it-unsettles-people Police Detective colleague. This gives the basis for a good ensemble cast for the rest of the series.

Walker spends a lot of this book revisiting her hidden-from-everyone-she-cares-about past. This is nicely done, striking a good balance between maudlin introspection and epiphany.

The plot is moderately complicated and brings in a whole coven of witches and some new and very scary bad guys. The astral battles are vividly described. What I liked most was that Walker is allowed to make a lot of mistakes in this book rather than glided along effortlessly as so many heroes seem to do. I also enjoyed the theme that explored the nature and use of sacrifice of yourself and others.

There was nothing in the book that made me go "Wow" but nothing that made me want to skip forward either. I enjoyed myself and cheered at the end. I'll get to the third book the next time I want a chilled weekend with a book. show less

I received a gratis electronic copy of this book through the publisher via NetGalley.

This is the ninth and final book is this urban fantasy series. When I started reading the Walker Papers, only three books had been released. I feel like I've been along for most of the long haul, but even more, these were instructive books for me. I studied them to learn how to write person, how to plot, how to improve my own writing in every way. So reading this final book? It's emotional.

Man, this show more book.

Murphy doesn't pull out any stops. The entire thing reads like a climax (really, it is in terms of the full story arc of the series)--more like a thriller than a standard urban fantasy. I had to take little breaks as I read to absorb what just happened, and I kept muttering out loud along the way. "Wait... what?" "Noooooo!" "Aw, yay! Aw, crap."

It's a great book. A perfect finish for the series. It did what it needed to do, with plenty of surprises along the way. I'm sad to see the series end but also excited because I know Murphy has other awesome projects ahead. I'll be ready to read them. show less

When I saw the pitch for "Urban Shaman", I was sceptical: an Urban Fantasy book that blends Celtic and Cherokee myth in the form of a modern-day Seatle PD cop. How likely was that to work?

But one of my New Year's resolutions was to try and be positive and I still had two days before Epiphany brought the Yule ride to end, so I gave it try.

About five chapters in, my response was, "WOW. Why haven't I heard of this series before?" A day later, having finished the book in a self-indulgent binge show more read, I had a grin on my face because I'd found my new Urban Fantasy series for 2018.

What C. E. Murphy has done by merging Celtic and Cherokee myth is bold, original and more than a little risky but she pulls it off. The action is more a "Dr Strange"fight-the-forces-of-evil-while-travelling-outside-your-body-on-another-plane kind of thing than it is an "Avengers" hit-your-enemy-with-your-hammer /shield/large green fist type of thing. That's hard to do and may not appeal to everyone but Murphy does it well and I loved every minute of it.

Joanne Walker is a half Irish, half Cherokee woman who, although she works in Seatle PD and went to the Police Academy, spends her time in the motor pool. The book starts with her returning from her mother's funeral in Ireland. On the descent into SEA, drowsy, airsick and with her contacts glued to her retinas, she sees a woman running away from a pack of dogs and towards a man wielding a butterfly knife. That unlikely optical feat and her dire compulsion to rescue the woman should have clued her into the fact that something in her life had shifted but it takes a while for her to catch up with this.

What follows is a story in which Joanne is introduced rather traumatically to her own, previously unsuspected, shamanic powers by being pitched into a conflict with the Wild Hunt.

Why does this work? Well, Joanne is likeable and has a character that is deeper and more complex than the usual kickass heroine with a sharp line of chat and a flair for martial arts. Most of the time Joanne has no idea what she's doing and words frequently fail her. I found this quite refreshing. The secondary characters, from the voluable cab driver to the perfectionist Police Captain, swiftly move from archetype to someone credible and interesting. The astral conflicts are described in surprisingly down to earth ways and conflict resolution is never about who has the biggest sword.

As a standalone book, it's fun, fast and fresh. As the first book in a series, it fills me with anticipation. show less

Despite having a massive backlog of books to read, Urban Shaman snared me so utterly that I had to go out and buy the sequel, Thunderbird Falls. I think this was a wise decision.

Thunderbird Falls picks up Joanne's story just three months after the end of the first book. Jo grudgingly accepts her shamanistic powers and knows she saved the world, but can't let go of her cynicism. Then, as luck would have it, she finds another dead body. Then her spirit guide vanishes. Adrift and desperate, she show more accepts a new teacher in the spirit world and is embraced by a coven who is looking to end the abnormal heat streak Seattle is enduring. However, things aren't what they seem, and the horrible heat suddenly seems like a minor blip compared to the ancient spirits Jo just released in the real world. Whoops.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It wasn't *quite* as good as the predecessor, mainly because I had the feeling all along that Joanne was making one screw-up after another, but it was still good and Jo is still an awesome and very-real heroine. I love this series, and doubt I'll be able to resist buying the third book within the next few weeks. show less