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"Easy Pickings"
by
Faith Hunter, C.E. Murphy
It is part of the Jane Yellowrock #4.3, series and is a paranormal fantasy in a Kindle edition that was published by Bella Rosa Books on November 29, 2012 and has 81 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon, Audibles.
Other books in this series include [books_series]
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Raven Cursed, An Apple for the Creature, Death's Rival, Blood Trade, Kicking It, Blood in Her Veins, Mercy Blade, Shadow Rites, Bloodring, Seraphs, Dark Queen, Shattered Bonds, Black Arts, Broken Soul, Dark Heir, Cold Reign, Blood of the Earth, Curse on the Land, "Water Witch", "Explosion On King's Street", Skinwalker, Dirty Deeds, "Shiloh and the Brick", "Black Friday Shopping with Nell and Occam", Circle of the Moon, Blood Cross, Spells for the Dead, True Dead, Dirty Deeds 2, Trials, Junkyard Cats, Rift in the Soul, Junkyard Bargain, Junkyard War , Junkyard Roadhouse, Flame in the Dark, Host, Coyote Dreams, Winter Moon, Heart of Stone
“Easy Pickings” is a crossover novella from Faith Hunter and C.E. Murphy set in New Orleans and revolving around Jane Yellowrock from the Jane Yellowrock series, 4.3, and Joanne Walker from the Walker Papers, 8.5. If you’re interested, there is a chronological listing of the Jane Yellowrock books on my website.
My Take
“Easy Pickings” takes place after Murphy’s Mountain Echoes, 8, and between Hunter’s Raven Cursed, 4, and Death’s Rival, 5.
Hunter/Murphy use a first person dual protagonist point-of-view alternating between Jane’s and Joanne’s perspectives with plenty of action and quite the mashup of characters from both Jane Yellowrock and the Walker Papers. We get more about Jane’s series while the references to Joanne’s story are surface only.
The whole idea of Katrina and power is rather scary.
It’s quite the wild ride with a lot packed into so few pages. Although, it makes a heckuva lot more sense if you’ve read both series.
The Story
Drawn into a world not their own, Jane Yellowrock and Joanne Walker team up to battle a greedy vampire.
The Characters
Joanne Walker is half-Cherokee, half-Irish, a shaman raised in North Carolina, and a former cop in Seattle. She “carries” a god’s rapier. Gary Muldoon is her seventy-four-year-old best friend. Captain Michael Morrison is Jo’s former boss. Melinda is married to Billy Holliday, Seattle’s only cross-dressing detective who also sees dead people.
Jane Yellowrock is a skinwalker of Cherokee descent and employed as a vampire killer in New Orleans. Beast is the soul of a panther who lives within Jane. Evangelina Everhart is a witch and the head of the Everhart coven. Jane’s friends.
New Orleans
The Royal Mojo Blues company has suddenly become the Vamp Mojo and reeks of blood and vampire. Leo Pellisier, Katie Fonteneau of Katie’s Ladies, and Grégoire are vampires ruled by Master Amaury Pellisier, who is sucking power in the city.
Antoine, an African witch, is alive and still cooking. Serena is a voodooine, a witch. Lissa is the baby girl who’s being held hostage. Maggie Sweets had been the alpha of the Lupus Pack in Jane’s world.
John Henry, a.k.a. Lazarus “Laz“, appears in the Lower World and claims he’s a gateway.
The Cover and Title
The cover is purple! Jane in her leathers and a slew of weapons and Joanne in her white wifebeater, jeans, belt, and rapier are standing in front of a corner entrance with a balcony above it. I’m suspecting that Hunter and Murphy are standing in for Jane and Joanne. At the very top are the authors’ names in pink neon lighting. Beneath is the title in a distressed playbill-style font, mostly in white with the “a” and “n” in a swooping red. At the bottom in a slightly transparent black border is a deep lilac info blurb.
I have no idea where the title, “Easy Pickings”, came from.
