Malice of Crows

November 20, 2017
Bowen doesn’t waste any time getting back into the thick of things in her exciting third adventure (after 2016’s Conspiracy of Ravens) to feature the indomitable Ranger Rhett Walker. Rhett is anxious to find and kill the necromancer Bernard Trevisan, who is inhabiting the body of a little girl named Meimei. He’s hoping for help from his captain, but, after tragedy strikes, he and his posse must defeat Trevisan on their own. Rowdy monster mayhem makes for a fast pace, and the gang faces down a horde of poisonous spiders and a vicious catlike creature, among others. But not all monsters are bad; they meet a gorgon that may hold the key to Trevisan’s demise, and Rhett himself and many of his crew are more than human. Rhett has spent three books coming to terms with being transgender and still struggles with his identity, but with the help of his diverse friends, he realizes that there’s a whole lot to love about himself. Bowen’s imaginative mix of wild West hijinks and supernatural frights leads to a fittingly dramatic finale. New readers can easily jump right in, and returning fans will keep cheering for Rhett and his buddies. Agent: Kate McKean, Morhaim Literary.

Starred review from September 15, 2017
A tale of magical battles set on the frontier of a Western world beset by monsters.Rhett Walker's first fight with the necromancer Trevisan nearly killed him. But now the magician has stolen the body of Meimei, the younger sister of Rhett's new companion, Cora, who's pretty adamant that their little band ought to be chasing after him. Except Rhett has a destiny--he's the Shadow, and he has to follow the "unwelcome twinge in his belly" that points him to "where the world demand[s] to be set right." The rest of Rhett's group of friends and followers--Cora; Earl, the ornery Irishman who can shift into a donkey; the coyote shifter Dan and his sister, Winifred; and Sam Hennessy, whose feelings about Rhett are as complicated as Rhett's for him are pure--will just have to accept it. He has to follow where the Shadow leads. And the Shadow, inevitably, leads him and his friends straight into danger. This third book in Bowen's (Conspiracy of Ravens, 2016, etc.) Shadow series picks up right where the last volume left off, and the pace of the band's adventures never lets up. Rhett is an appealing hero, gruff and prickly on the surface, with deep feeling poorly hidden underneath, and his friends are complex, well-drawn characters. The stakes couldn't be higher, and the story couldn't be more absorbing. Fans of the Shadow will love returning to his world, and fantasy fans who haven't yet encountered this colorful cowboy should hurry up and dive in.

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