The Witness for the Dead

We meet Thara Celehar when he is in Amalo, having left the Emperor’s court to return to his duties as a prelate of the moon god, Ulis. His situation appears to be uncomfortably one in limbo. He owes his living, his benefice, to the Archprelate, which puts him outside of the control of the local hierarchy. His status in the local but highly regulated hierarchy is unclear. He has a very small benefice which means that he has little financial support – barely enough to maintain himself and virtually none for any luxury items. He can’t afford to go to the theatre. He can’t buy a new coat of office. He can barely afford to buy himself a pot of tea in the local cafes.

What we see Thara Celehar do is be a caring individual while still show more shielding himself from emotional ties, even ties to the local cats to whom he feeds sardines. He is recovering from the loss of a loved one himself. He is not kept nearly as busy as he might like, but the services for which his presence is required are still important to those whose relatives have departed this earth. Those services might have to do with identifying chosen heirs within a family on up to quieting a ghoul in one of the cemeteries of Amalo. (Hence, the series name.) He is an emotional wreck but he is still obligated to get up every day and fulfill his role as Witness, all while navigating the political niceties of Church and State.

Definitely an engaging read in a field where well-imagined worlds are not overly common. The characters are likeable, their circumstances and challenges relatively complicated. One likes Celehar as a person of integrity and wants to encourage him to connect more deeply with those who want to befriend him. show less

"The Witness for the Dead" is a very nice, cozy detective story featuring an honest and likeable main protagonist set in a fantasy world of elves and goblins with steampunk technology, but the brevity of the novel and narrowness of the scope simply prevent this from clearing its own hurdles. Although it helps to have read "The Goblin Emperor" first, our main character, Thara Celehar, is richly woven and his dedication to his calling is as admirable as his self-loathing is not; the slice-of-life episodes that combine to form the threads of the novel are actually rather Dickensian in the character portrayals and sense of place and really do come to give the reader a comfortable familiarity. Celehar's unlooked-for, burgeoning relationship show more with the slightly-manic opera director Pel-Thenior is a sweet counterpoint to the darkness of the overall tone. I do like the story and I love this world. But, this is a 200-page mystery novel, not "The Silmarillion."

Addison created an incredibly rich world for "The Goblin Emperor," for which this is "more spin-off than sequel"* in the same world; the terminology, languages, and place-names alone required appendices in that novel that are absent here despite the use of the invented words. It is sufficiently difficult to follow the alien words and titles that the story doesn't justify the headaches. Look, if I'm reading "Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982" by Cho Nam-Joo, I can easily Google maps of Seoul, look up Korean words and honorifics, and research domestic policy in South Korea to help me along because these things exist; I cannot do that with Addison's creation, and she does not help by giving a map or two, a cast of characters, or a simple glossary of titles. I'm no dummy, but I'm still unclear on a few things and that disappoints me.

* -- As the 'Publishers Weekly' v.268 review put it. show less

We are in the same world as The Goblin Emperor, but far from the court. Of course politics is still in play and complicating the investigations of the previously disgraced Witness for the Dead into 3 different deaths. A woman found in the canal introduces him to the personalities and exuberant world of opera, a disputed will gets him dispatched to chase a ghoul and looking for the remains of a man's sister who only once sent a message after her marriage to a man unknown to her family initiates a search for a true monster.

I swear, I’d read Katherine Addison’s grocery lists. This book isn’t really much like the Goblin Emperor, save in its mesmerizing storytelling, and its flawed and endearing narrator, but those things are more than enough to be going on with. It’s a murder mystery of sorts, and an almost love story, and an enthralling other world. The only thing I quibble with is that the main character seems very female to me, and the later parts of the book which insist on a male gender came as a shock. I guess I forgot from the first book, or else I felt the same then. As a reader, I just rejected it out of hand and carried on. It matters a bit for reasons of plot, but there you go.

Advanced readers copy provided by Edelweiss

Thara Celehar is the Witness for the Dead that the goblin emperor Maia, in The Goblin Emperor, consulted concerning the deaths of his father and three half-brothers. A minor character in that story, he's the protagonist in this one.

Celehar is no longer at court; he's now in the distant city of Amalo, Witness for the Dead for the people of the city. It's a humbler but for him far more satisfying position. In this role, he can often really help ordinary people. He can identify the dead, and often identify the cause of death. In one case brought to him, he's able to identify a deceased man's true heir, when at least one of the two competing wills is clearly forged.

The story revolves around several cases brought to him, which may or may not show more be related. An opera singer who wasn't liked by her colleagues is found murdered in what seems an unlikely part of town for her--and for all they dislike her, no one seems to have a motive strong enough to end in murder. The case of the forged will, mentioned above, seems simple at first, but has unexpected ramifications. The prince sends him off to deal with a ghoul that's tormenting one of the more remote towns. And the unexplained death of a young woman expecting her first child becomes the first hint that there's a serial killer at work.

Celehar sits in his tiny office every morning, awaiting petitioners asking him for help. Sometimes, he can help by pursuing his calling. Sometimes, he can help by telling the petitioners which office or prelate they should really be consulting. Sometimes, he can't help at all, but he always does his best.

Celehar is socially awkward, bad at picking up social cues, and not that great about abiding by social expectations of dress and adornment, in what is a rather rigid and regulated society. He doesn't make friends easily--except when he does, with people who are misfits in their own ways, or similarly unconcerned with the social judgments of others. Another review suggested that Celehar is a very good depiction of an autistic person in this rule-bound society, and I agree with that.

Like The Goblin Emperor, this is both an interesting blend of high fantasy and steampunk, and a deeply humane story in a genre where that's not necessarily what's expected.

I truly loved this. Highly recommended.

I bought this audiobook. show less

Sometimes the dead have unfinished business. As Witness for the Dead in the city of Amalo, Thara Celehar's job is to listen to them, and find ways to bring them the peace, justice, and rest that they seek. A murdered opera singer, a disputed will, a ravenous ghoul, and a serial killer are some of the cases that Celehar faces in the course of his usual (or perhaps we should say unusual) duties.

I loved falling into this world again, though it is only tangentially related to The Goblin Emperor. Celehar is a more withdrawn personality than Maia, and harder to get to know, but I found the slow unfolding of his character rewarding. I had a bit of trouble with the many characters and their long and difficult names, plus the various forms of show more address, and the equally confusing place names. I would have liked both a map and a character list, but this book contains no back-matter whatsoever. I had also forgotten certain key points about Celehar's backstory that were revealed in the previous book, so I think someone starting with this volume might be confused or find themselves lacking context. However, when I managed to immerse myself in the story, I found the rich details and lovely writing enough to carry me through. Recommended to fans of the first book. I'm looking forward to another book featuring Celehar coming out later this year. show less

I very much liked “The Goblin Emperor”, the first book in this unusual series. Unfortunately, this successor fell clearly short of greatness.

The book’s eponymous “Witness for the dead”, Thara Celehar, is a humble, demure and thoroughly traumatized prelate who has - more or less - been exiled because he had an affair with a married man who proceeded to murder his wife.

Celehar is originally called upon to investigate the murder of an opera singer but large parts of the book are not actually about this investigation but about a forged will, a serial murderer who kills his newly-wed wives, a ghoul who needs banishing in the country side and a lot of other small “sub-plots”.

That’s where my issues with this book start: There show more is not one consistent primary storyline but there are several that are mostly unrelated to each other. Just like our thoroughly likeable hero Celehar, we’re following him in his exploits. The writing and world-building is so well executed that I, at times, felt like I was witnessing what happened. Everything felt plausible and intrinsically “real”.

Unfortunately, reality tends to be a lot about routine which isn’t very exciting. While I smiled at Celehar feeding stray cats, and I commiserated with him for his insomnia, his need to ration; it’s just not very interesting.

At times, especially when Celehar went to banish the ghoul, I wondered what narrative purpose this side story had - which turned out to be none.
At another time, Celehar is to undergo a “trial by ordeal” which amounted to spending the night on the “Hill of Werewolves”:

»The path, paved in ancient flagstones, meandered a good deal; I resisted the impulse to try to take a shortcut, even in places where it looked reasonable. I was halfway up the hill before I encountered the first ghost.«

Sounds great, doesn’t it? And it’s not just a single ghosts, it’s an entire battle between ghosts! And it culminates at the end of the page like this:

»Now all I had to do was to get through the rest of the night without going mad.«

I was drawing in my breath sharply, I felt my lungs expand, I held my breath; preparing to turn to the next page where I was shocked to read this:

»When I reached the gate at dawn, the canon was not the only one waiting for me.«

I immediately deflated.

There are lots of missed opportunities in this book that had - by its merits of good writing, a complex world, interesting characters and an author who knows how to capture her readers -
every chance of greatness but failed.

The murder of the opera singer? Solved pretty much by chance instead of using the setting of the opera house itself, its huge cast pretty much all of whom despised the victim.

The explosion of an airship, similar to the Hindenburg Disaster? In terms of the overall story just a side-note.

Or the shy beginnings of a romance between Celehar and the director of the opera, Pel-Thenhior: Of course, after the horrible ending of his previous relationship, Celehar is understandably reluctant to act upon his attraction to (and fledgling feelings for) Pel-Thenhior. The longer both interact, the more obvious it becomes that Pel-Thenhior, too, harbours more than just good will for Celehar but this remains a loose end like so many others.

Still, “The Witness for the Dead” is definitely not a bad book. It’s just one that, sadly, failed to realize its immense potential.

Three out of five stars.


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