The Good, the Bad, and the Undead (Hollows Series #2)

( 733 )

Overview

It's a tough life for witch Rachel Morgan, sexy, independent bounty hunter, prowling the darkest shadows of downtown Cincinnati for criminal creatures of the night.

She can handle the leather-clad vamps and even tangle with a cunning demon or two. But a serial killer who feeds on the experts in the most dangerous kind of black magic is definitely pressing the limits.

Confronting an ancient, implacable evil is ...

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The Good, the Bad, and the Undead (Hollows Series #2)

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Overview

It's a tough life for witch Rachel Morgan, sexy, independent bounty hunter, prowling the darkest shadows of downtown Cincinnati for criminal creatures of the night.

She can handle the leather-clad vamps and even tangle with a cunning demon or two. But a serial killer who feeds on the experts in the most dangerous kind of black magic is definitely pressing the limits.

Confronting an ancient, implacable evil is more than just child's play — and this time, Rachel will be lucky to escape with her very soul.

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Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble Review
Sexy earth witch and leather-loving bounty hunter Rachel Morgan returns in The Good, the Bad, and the Undead, the sequel to Kim Harrison's wildly popular debut novel, Dead Witch Walking. Rachel's newest adventure finds her hot on the trail of a serial killer -- and she's his next target!

Having recently quit her job as a runner (supernatural bounty hunter) for Inderland Security to form her own agency, Rachel is finding it hard to make ends meet. Living in an old church in the Hollows of Cincinnati with an ill-tempered vampire named Ivy Tamwood and a wisecracking pixie named Jenks, she is forced to take any job she can get -- like rescuing a baseball team's mascot! But after a series of gruesome murders involving witches, Rachel is hired by the Federal Inderland Bureau to help track down the killer. Her investigation leads her to Trent Kalamack, a powerful councilman with ties to the supernatural underground. But as Rachel gets closer to the killer, she learns more about her own mysterious past -- and what she finds out could kill her!

Fans of hybrid series that blend genres -- horror, romance, mystery, and fantasy -- like Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake novels, Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire saga, and Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld sequence -- will undoubtedly enjoy Harrison's novels. With strong female characters, breakneck pacing, and enough juicy subplots and villainous secret agendas to power a daytime soap opera indefinitely, these novels are utterly readable: the very definition of guilty pleasure. Paul Goat Allen

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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780060572976
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
  • Publication date: 1/25/2005
  • Series: Hollows Series , #2
  • Format: Mass Market Paperback
  • Pages: 464
  • Sales rank: 75742
  • Product dimensions: 4.18 (w) x 6.75 (h) x 1.16 (d)

Meet the Author

Kim Harrison

New York Times bestselling author Kim Harrison was born and raised in the upper Midwest. Her bestselling Hollows novels include Dead Witch Walking; The Good, the Bad, and the Undead; Every Which Way But Dead; A Fistful of Charms; For a Few Demons More; The Outlaw Demon Wails; White Witch, Black Curse; Black Magic Sanction; Pale Demon; A Perfect Blood; Ever After; and The Undead Pool, plus the short-story collection Into the Woods, The Hollows Insider, and the graphic novels Blood Work and Blood Crime. She also writes the Madison Avery series for young adults.

Biography

Bestselling paranormal fantasy author Kim Harrison went all the way through school with nary a thought of becoming a writer. A biology major in college, she took only the required English courses needed to graduate. So when the writing bug hit her later in life, she found herself at a real disadvantage with grammar, spelling, and other basic weapons in the scribbler's arsenal. However, her love of books was her saving grace. Always a voracious reader, Harrison instinctively recognized the role of plot, pacing, and character development in good storytelling. She set about writing with great enthusiasm and plugged away for the better part of decade, until she was able to bring her skills up to par.

Harrison's debut novel grew out of frustration with a growing pile of rejection notices. In an attempt to get publishers' attention, she set out to craft something deliberately weird and edgy. She conceived a motley cast of vampires, werewolves, pixies, and witches, including a sexy bounty hunter named Rachel Morgan, and threw them together in a short story. Then, her agent introduced her to editor Diana Gill, and together they refined and expanded Harrison's idea into a full length novel.

Published in 2004, Dead Witch Walking became a bestseller, launched a blockbuster series, and catapulted Harrison into a pantheon of paranormal superstars that includes Laurell K. Hamilton, Charlaine Harris, Christine Feehan, and Sherrilyn Kenyon. As if to validate her inclusion in these ranks, Harrison's stories have also been included in several bestselling paranormal collections.

Good To Know

  • Harrison claims that her muse exists in music. In our exclusive interview, she explained, "Music moves society more than most people realize. In my opinion, it's a soft manipulator of influence and change. I love the power of the musician who composes and performs. I envy their ability to put a nugget of truth in three minutes of sweat and emotional outpouring, colored entirely from their thoughts. And I'll admit that if I can, I'll steal that nugget of truth, study it, facet it, polish it, and place it in my writing."

  • On her MySpace page, Kim lists the following as her heroes: "My parents. Anyone who pursues their dreams when no one believes they can reach them. Single moms and dads."

  • Rachel Morgan and her otherworldly cohorts exist in and around an alternate version of Cincinnati, Ohio -- a "little big city" Harrison was familiar with from her Midwestern youth. She always tries to incorporate "Cincy" sights into her series novels, so readers are likely to find allusions to Eden Park, the Cincinnati Zoo, and other local neighborhoods and landmarks.

  • As a tribute to one of her favorite actor/directors, Harrison has given some of her Rachel Morgan novels titles that play on well-known Clint Eastwood films: For a Few Demons More, Every Which Way but Dead, The Outlaw Demon Wails, etc.

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    Table of Contents

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    First Chapter

    The Good, the Bad, and the Undead

    Chapter One

    I hitched the canvas strap holding the watering canister higher up on my shoulder and stretched to get the nozzle into the hanging plant. Sunlight streamed in, warm through my blue institutional jumpsuit. Past the narrow plate-glass windows was a small courtyard surrounded by VIP offices. Squinting from the sun, I squeezed the handle of the watering hose, and the barest hint of water hissed through.

    There was a burst of clattering computer keys, and I moved to the next plant down. Phone conversation filtered in from the office past the reception desk, accompanied by a belly laugh that sounded like the bark of a dog. Weres. The higher up in the pack they were, the more human looking they managed, but you could always tell when they laughed.

    I glanced down the row of hanging plants before the windows to the freestanding fish tank behind the receptionist's desk. Yup. Cream-colored fins. Black spot on right side. This was the one. Mr. Ray raised koi, showing them in Cincinnati's annual fish show. Last year's winner was always displayed in his outer office, but now there were two fish, and the Howlers' mascot was missing. Mr. Ray was a Den boy, a rival of Cincinnati's all Inderland baseball team. It didn't take much to put two and two together and get stolen fish.

    "So," the cheerful woman behind the desk said as she stood to drop a ream of paper into the printer's hopper. "Mark is on vacation? He didn't tell me."

    I nodded, not looking at the secretary dressed in her snappy cream-colored business suit as I dragged my watering equipment down another three feet. Mark was taking a short vacation in the stairwell of the building he had been servicing before this one. Knocked out with a short-term sleepy-time potion. "Yes, ma'am," I added, raising my voice and adding a slight lisp. "He told me what plants to water, though." I curled my red manicured nails under my palms before she spotted them. They didn't go with the working plant-girl image. I should have thought of that earlier. "All the ones on this floor, and then the arboretum on the roof."

    The woman smiled to show me her slightly larger teeth. She was a Were, and fairly high up in the office pack by her amount of polish. And Mr. Ray wouldn't have a dog for a secretary when he could pay a high enough salary for a bitch. A faint scent of musk came from her, not unpleasant. "Did Mark tell you about the service elevator at the back of the building?" she said helpfully. "It's easier than lugging that cart up all those stairs."

    "No, ma'am," I said, pulling the ugly cap with the plantman logo on it tighter to my head. "I think he's making everything just hard enough that I don't try to take his territory." Pulse quickening, I pushed Mark's cart with its pruning shears, fertilizer pellets, and watering system farther down the line. I had known of the elevator, along with the placement of the six emergency exits, the pulls for the fire alarm, and where they kept the doughnuts.

    "Men," she said, rolling her eyes as she sat before her screen again. "Don't they realize that if we wanted to rule the world, we could?"

    I gave her a noncommittal nod and squirted a tiny amount of water into the next plant. I kinda thought we already did.

    A tight hum rose over the whirl of the printer and the faint office chatter. It was Jenks, my partner, and he was clearly in a bad mood as he flew out of the boss's back office and to me. His dragonfly wings were bright red in agitation, and pixy dust sifted from him to make temporary sunbeams. "I'm done with the plants in there," he said loudly as he landed on the rim of the hanging pot in front of me. He put his hands on his hips to look like a middle-age Peter Pan grown up to be a trashman in his little blue jumpsuit. His wife had even sewn him a matching cap. "All they need is water. Can I help you out here with anything, or can I go back and sleep in the truck?" he added acerbically.

    I took the watering canister off me, setting it down to unscrew the top. "I could use a fertilizer pellet," I prompted, wondering what his problem was.

    Grumbling, he flew to the cart and started rummaging. Green twist ties, stakes, and used pH test strips flew everywhere. "Got one," he said, coming up with a white pellet as large as his head. He dropped it in the canister and it fizzed. It wasn't a fertilizer pellet but an oxygenator and slime-coat promoter. What's the point of stealing a fish if it dies in transport?

    "Oh my God, Rachel," Jenks whispered as he landed on my shoulder "It's polyester. I'm wearing polyester!"

    My tension eased as I realized where his bad mood came from. "It'll be okay."

    "I'm breaking out!" he said, scratching vigorously under his collar. "I can't wear polyester. Pixies are allergic to polyester. Look. See?" He tilted his head so his blond hair shifted from his neck, but he was too close to focus on. "Welts. And it stinks. I can smell the oil. I'm wearing dead dinosaur. I can't wear a dead animal. It's barbaric, Rache," he pleaded.

    "Jenks?" I screwed the cap lightly back onto the canister and hung it over my shoulder, pushing Jenks from me in the process. "I'm wearing the same thing. Suck it up."

    "But it stinks!"

    I eyed him hovering before me. "Prune something," I said through gritted teeth.

    He flipped me off with both hands, hovering backward as he went. Whatever. Patting my back pocket of the vile blue jumpsuit, I found my snippers ...

    The Good, the Bad, and the Undead. Copyright © by Kim Harrison. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.
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    Customer Reviews

    Average Rating 4.5
    ( 733 )
    Rating Distribution

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    See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 736 Customer Reviews
    • Posted Mon Jun 08 00:00:00 EDT 2009

      more from this reviewer

      I Also Recommend:

      Kim Harrison Created another Thrilling book

      As a sequal, this one picked right up where the last left off. The chacters are all here for the next chapter of this thriling series. I finally figured out Trent before the book told me. I still am working on some of the questions. Like- Why is Tent scared of Rachel? Who is Nick really? And what is on the agenda next for Ivy? On my way to Barnes and Nobel to get the third book.

      Even my son is liking this series!

      If you are up for a great thriller, mystery and a funny book (Jenks is a hoot!) this is the series for you! Don't just take my word, read the first one and get hooked like I did.

      Looking for another easy series to get caught up in? Try Marked or Twilight. They both are great, nonstop intrigue and fun, just can't seem to put them down.

      7 out of 7 people found this review helpful.

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    • Posted Tue May 18 00:00:00 EDT 2010

      Any book named after a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western has to be good

      Kim Harrison must be a big Clint fan since she has based several of her titles in this series on Clint Eastwood films. There is even a reference in the book to a Clint Eastwood movie marathon. This second book in the Rachel Morgan series, The Good, The Bad, and The Undead, offers up a tighter crime drama than the first book, builds on the culture of this alternate universe, and hints at mysteries of the past. The writing has improved from the first book (though I still see typos) and the dark humor is laugh-out-loud funny. I love the lingo created by the "history" that predates the story. The romance between Rachel and her boyfriend Nick from the first book alternately heats up and cools down as they forge an unusual bond. Rachel's vampire partner Ivy struggles against her nature while Ivy's boyfriend makes a pass at Rachel, in a way that only a vampire can. Meanwhile Rachel warily partners with her enemy Trent Kalamack, whom she tried to bring down in the first book. There are grotesque scenes of death, a dangerous demon working more than one side, and a surprise romantic ending. The first book wasn't bad, but this one is an improvement that makes me want to know more. Some books read like a movie. This one reads like a cult-favorite TV show, episodic but with a back story that will keep building as it is slowly revealed.

      6 out of 8 people found this review helpful.

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    • Posted Fri Mar 16 00:00:00 EDT 2012

      I Also Recommend:

      Great Book. Should be made into a movie. enjoyed it immensely.

      Great Book. Should be made into a movie. enjoyed it immensely.

      4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

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    • Posted Thu Aug 19 00:00:00 EDT 2010

      more from this reviewer

      I Also Recommend:

      Clothing descriptions... AAAAHHHH!!!!

      Okay so obviously this book answers a lot of unanswered questions from the first one and leaving a bit open for the next book. But I swear it aggravated me to no end that every five pages or so this author has to describe what people are wearing, like this is a fashion show and I need a play by play... It was almost so bad that it seemed like it was just filler to make the book longer than it actually needed to be. If you can get past all that, the story is interesting and as always Ivy and Jenks are probably the best part of this ongoing series. Rachel unfortunately is still really boring to me. Meh, I'll start in on the next book in a little while... think I need a break from the series right now.

      3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

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    • Posted Tue Dec 09 00:00:00 EST 2008

      more from this reviewer

      A wonderful paranormal private investigative tale

      After being given terrible cases that she felt were below her talent, witch Rachel Morgan broke the cardinal rule by resigning from the human managed federal government¿s Inderland Security. EEO and merit promotion fail when it comes to the glass ceiling for witches and other assorted ilk. Rachel opens up a firm with Jenks the Pixie and Ivy Tamwood the ill-tempered Vampire, but though she loves the independence worries about the rent................. Her former agency contracts out an assignment to Rachel. In Cincinnati, a serial killer is murdering witches, which makes Rachel the perfect witch to stop the culprit. The preliminary evidence points towards Trent Kalamack, who would cherish feeding his black magical soul with the prowess of his victims. With her helpers not much help as Ivy still needs to cut her teeth and Jenk is stuck in polyester and her boyfriend is tied up with demons that he conjures up, Rachel patrols the night by herself knowing that she risks her life to stop an evil from feeding on her sisters.......................... This sequel to the delightful DEAD WITCH WALKING is a wonderful paranormal private investigative tale that in many ways will remind readers of the works of Kelly Armstrong and Charlaine Harris. The story line is terrific as Kim Harrison displays insider knowledge to the workings of a bureaucracy when they force Rachel to quit, but hire her back as a contractor for more money and full use of her skills. The key to the tale is the cast who will turn believers of skeptics that vampires, pixies, witches, and an assortment of other supernatural beings exist. That is the magic of Kim Harrison..................... Harriet Klausner

      2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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    • Posted Mon Feb 14 00:00:00 EST 2011

      Hooked in

      I remember reading yhe first book and saying it was good. However after reading the second and the third book I am now hooked. I liked the Sookie Stackhouse books and if you like those books you will really like this author. Someone really needs to get her a movie deal.

      1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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    • Posted Sun Mar 28 00:00:00 EDT 2010

      more from this reviewer

      I Also Recommend:

      Love This Series!!!

      I love the Rachel Morgan series. Kim Harrison has created a world that any reader would love to escape into. Incorperating most fantasy creatures into this series brings you into a world you could never imagin. This series puts you into the head of a snarky witch bounty hunter, Rachel Morgan. She's a kick-butt chick who gets paid to do dirty work for "Inderlanders"(the fantasy creatures in the book). Along the way she has interesting incounters with a vampire roommate who has the hots for her, a demon who keeps trying th kill her boyfriend, and a big shot inderlander she's trying to bust for selling drugs. If you want a story with a high power female, complicated plot to fallow, and an overall amazing read yyou need to read this series.

      1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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    • Anonymous

      Posted Mon Oct 26 00:00:00 EDT 2009

      LOVE THE SERIES

      i have read all of the hollow books and love the characters and all the predicaments rachel gets herself into

      1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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    • Anonymous

      Posted Sun Sep 13 00:00:00 EDT 2009

      I Also Recommend:

      Very enjoyable

      This was a very different and imaginative story. Have read all of the books in this series and each one as good as the last. Kept my attention could not put them down. Can not wait for the next.

      1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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    • Posted Sat Aug 29 00:00:00 EDT 2009

      more from this reviewer

      Amazing

      This book was just as good as the first

      1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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    • Anonymous

      Posted Fri Jul 24 00:00:00 EDT 2009

      I Also Recommend:

      Rachel, Rachel, Rachel................

      What can I say besides "love this series"!

      1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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    • Anonymous

      Posted Mon Aug 27 00:00:00 EDT 2007

      Couldn't put it down!

      This was a real page turner for me. I finished it in record time and intend to go right to the next book in the series. It is slowly being revealed that Rachel is magically stronger than she knows leaving the reader wondering just how much untapped power she has that even she has not discovered. I like the way the author lets some things remain a mystery at the end of one book but resolves some of that mystery in the next. I have just discovered this series so I am looking forward to reading the rest and discovering more answers with each book. The action, when there, was intense. I really enjoy the Rachel/Trent recurring storyline. Ivy is getting more interesting and Jenks always makes me laugh. I would like to have more Jenks, and I will find out shortly if I get my wish as I read through the rest of the books.

      1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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    • Anonymous

      Posted Mon Apr 04 00:00:00 EDT 2005

      Terrific novel...

      Things begin going wrong for Rachel Morgan right off the bat, as usual. First, the fish mascot she rescues for a local baseball team from its rival turns out to be the wrong fish; the missing one wasn't really missing, leaving her stiffed for her fee. Then, she is drawn into an FIB case. Witches are being killed, and the common thread uniting the serial murder victims happens to be that they met with Rachel's nemesis, Trent Kalamack, the man who put Rachel and her current love, Nick, into the rat fights as a mink and rat destined to fight to the death. The victims are also ley line witches. The FIB sends Rachel back to school undercover, as it so happens under a teacher who is determined to fail her. Soon, Rachel finds that the way forward is the way back, as she must look into her own past to find answers to the present dilema. Then, things become confusing and dangerous for her. Nick harbors a deadly secret that could cost both of them their souls. Ivy Tamwood, Rachel's best friend, partner, and living vampire, teeters on the edge of going off her blood fast- with Rachel. Someone wants Rachel dead, which is really nothing new. A charming, almost, demon, is determined to draw her into the ever after, which would make death look like fun. The FIB and IS are bureaucratic dolts. The only people who really appear wholly on Rachel's side and have lied the least to her, if at all are Jenks, her pixie partner and Trent Kalamack, who is supposed to be her enemy. Life gets weird. ............................................. ***** If you like 'Dead Witch Walking', you will love this. Rachel combines Stephanie Plum's daffiness with Eve Dallas' toughness. Her world is vast and complex as that of Sookie Stackhouse or Anita Blake. Jenks is a hoot, plain and simple. Though I'm not sure what to make of Ivy or Nick yet, Trent is turning out to be a fascinating character. Though at first blush he's a villain, by book's end, you might want to change your mind. *****

      1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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    • Anonymous

      Posted Tue Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 2005

      The Good, the Better, and the Best

      Wow! Rachel, the earth witch turning ley-line witch, has got a serial witch killer to catch, a hormoned up vampire in her house, and a human boyfriend whose bargaining with a demon as his past-time. Not to mention, the mysterious Trent...she finally discovers 'what' he is. I thought the first book good, but this second book has secrets revealed, sub-plots developed, and twists and turns all the way to the end. This is definately the better, that leaves you wanting what promises to be hopefully the 'best' with a third installment due out this fall! Definately should read the first book to enjoy this one completely!

      1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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    • Anonymous

      Posted Fri Apr 29 00:00:00 EDT 2005

      Finally, an author with the right 'mix'!

      I was surprized and excited when I read this book. Her first-'Dead Witch Walking'-was good, but the main character lacked a little debth. I was VERY excited after reading this book because Ms. Harrison added that debth to character Rachel Morgan and, boy oh boy, did she ever get the rest of the book right. I have been so upset with Laurell K Hamilton's current direction of the Anita Blake series and now I have hopefully found a replacement. The next installment of Ms. Harrison's series will either confirm by hopes or dash them. This book was well worth the money! I suggest you read the first in the series to completely understand references in the second. Enjoy!

      1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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    • Anonymous

      Posted Thu Jul 03 00:00:00 EDT 2014

      Good book

      Great read

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    • Anonymous

      Posted Mon Jun 23 00:00:00 EDT 2014

      Hawaii

      Good Series...took a while to get started; but very good story for folks who like this genre

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    • Anonymous

      Posted Fri Apr 04 00:00:00 EDT 2014

      Prim

      I heard dat pat was here

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    • Anonymous

      Posted Thu Apr 03 00:00:00 EDT 2014

      Paj

      Herre

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    • Anonymous

      Posted Thu Apr 03 00:00:00 EDT 2014

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