This Witch for Hire

The Hollows #1-2

by Kim Harrison

A new omnibus with two of Kim Harrison's bestselling The Hollows series!

Includes:
* Dead Witch Walking
* The Good, the Bad, and the Undead

Bounty hunter and witch Rachel Morgan calls the Hollows, the menacing, magical section of Cincinnati, her home - as do all the supernatural beings spawned from the Angel Virus, the great plague that killed much of humanity....

Genres: Urban Fantasy, Fantasy, Paranormal, Vampires, Romance, Fiction, Magic

707 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Kim Harrison is best known as the author of the New York Times #1 best selling Hollows series, but she has written more than urban fantasy and has published over two-dozen books spanning the gamut from young adult, thriller, several anthologies, and has scripted two original graphic novels. She has also published traditional fantasy under the name Dawn Cook. Kim is currently working on a new Hollows book between other, non related, urban fantasy projects.
Kim reaches out to her audience at Facebook https://www.facebook.com/KimHarrisons...
Instagram
https://instagram.com/kim_harrison_au...
and her blog http://kimharrison.wordpress.com/

other pseudonyms: Dawn Cook

Reviews

[Alexandria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stumbled upon the Rachel Morgan series while waiting for the next release of the Sookie Stackhouse books. I was hooked, lined, and sunk. However, it helped that she had quite a few of her series already published, so I wasn't cursed with the waiting for the next book syndrome. It was a perfect timing sort of event being that I was stuck in North Carolina waiting out a storm that had flooded my home. The 2 week wait turned in to a few months wait, and thankfully, Ms. Morgan decided to entertain me. While I wasn't looking for not another vampire book, and I really only read the Sookie books to see where HBO was going, I enjoyed Ms. Harrison's books tremendously. Her heroine isn't your typical Ms. Perfect I can beat up the bad guys and I'm sexy and I know it" character. She was pretty, pretty sexy even, but she was far from being perfect. There were so many times I would find myself wincing with her choice of outfits, boyfriends (sorry, I did not like Marshall!), weapon choice, and choice of conscious. She's a messy girl, like many of my students like calling girls that get into trouble and cause it as well, she's a messy, messy girl. I think I can say this much without spoiling things.
It's been about 40 years or so that the human population of the world was almost decimated by a virus that had attached to a tomato (bio engineered drugs). The magical population (witches, vampires, werewolves, etc) were unaffected by the virus so they basically came out of the closet and saved the humans causing them to realize that they weren't in Kansas anymore. Rachel is a bounty hunter of sorts that works on bringing in the nonhuman bad guys in for the just rewards, hopefully a lifetime of rehabilitation in an inlander prison, stowed safely away from us innocent humans. If you decide to read the book, take tally of how many times you think, Girl, that was just stupid. But still keep on reading. The characters in Rachel's circle are easy to love, easy to hate, easy to horrify, easy to melt. I dare you to not love Big Al by the time you get to Ever After . Happy Reading!

[Jer · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS IS A GREAT SERIES! It has become my all time favorite.
KIM HARRISON(Dawn Cook) is the best, you will be hooked from book 1, page 1.

SHE WILL ALWAYS LEAVE YOU WANTING MORE...AND WAITING FOR THE NEXT IN THE SERIES!

You will not be disappointed! K.H.'s characters come alive, you will laugh and cry with them, grow tremendously from book #1. I love the world that K.H. has created. Bio-engineered tomatoes, witches, vampires, pixies, faeries, trolls, wolves...

The first book runs kinda slow in the beginning but finishes with a bang. And the rest of the series..Kicks-Butt!

WARNING:The novels build on each other...things that happen in book 1 will not be figured out until book 3 and book 3 events with be concluded in book 7, etc. K.H does a wonderful job on weaving the entire series.

I reread the entire series every new release and LOVE every last one of them!!!

YOU TOO WILL FALL IN LOVE WITH KIM HARRISON, RACHEL, IVY, JENKS AND THE REST OF KIM HARRISON'S CHARACTERS.

THE ORDER OF K.H'S RACHEL MORGAN/HOLLOWS SERIES:
#1. "Dead Witch Walking"
#2. "The Good, The Bad, and the Undead"
#3. "Every Which Way But Dead"
#4. "A Fistful of Charms"
#5. "For A Few Demons More"
#6. "The Outlaw Demon Wails"
#7. "White Witch, Black Curse"
#8. "Black Magic Sanction"
#9. "Pale Demon"
#10. "A Perfect Blood"
#11. "Ever After"
#12. TBA 2014
#13. TBA 2015 ***The series ends at book 13***

Extras
"The Hollows Insider" Hollows world guide, the definitive source for all things Hollows

"Into the Woods" Contains previously released Hollows shorts and novellas, and five new stories from the Hollows and beyond.

Anthologies(short stories)
#1. Undead in The Garden of Good and Evil -Ivy's POV "Dates From Hell"
#2. Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel -/Rachel & Pierce "Holidays are Hell"
#3. Dirty Magic -Mia's short story in "Hotter than Hell"
#4. Ley Line Drifter -Bis and Jenks short story in "Unbound"

The Hollows Graphic Novel Series
#1. "Blood Work"
#2. "Blood Crime"

Madison Avery Trilogy
-Anthology- "Prom Nights from Hell"
#1. "Once Dead, Twice Shy"
#2. "Early to Death, Early to Rise"
#3. "Something Deadly this way Comes"

http://www.kimharrison.net/TheBooks.html

[Delane · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are reading Kim Harrison, you are reading the best. I have tried every trick in the book to make each new Hollows book last longer with no luck. I have re-read the series about 10 times in the last year and I still can't put them down. Everytime I re-read them I get more out of them.

[Rowan Creech · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love this series. Kim Harrison is natural born story teller. You can't help but like all of the characters, even you when you to hate on the bad guys. The stories are seamless and so enchanting. I love, love, love this series!!!

[Brittney · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I just completed my re-read of this. And I can honestly say that I enjoyed actually reading this instead of listening to it as I did the first time. I remembered much of what I had forgotten and remembered exactly why I became so invested in this series and the characters to begin with. It takes a lot for me to stick with a series, and even more for me to become so invested in the outcomes for all of the characters involved. This book (and series as a whole) reminds me of why I love reading so much, and it feels amazing to have found a series that is so hard to put down.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re-read these for the first time since I originally read them back in 2007 and I ended up actually skipping book one because it was so much boring build-up/character introduction. Book two is much better but still nothing compared to how good the books get later in the series BUT OMG THE TRENT/RACHEL FEELS! I forgot how early they started. It's going to be a rough series read waiting to find out what happens to my ship. 11 more books to go.

[Anna]

I NEED this book!!!!

[Earl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Turns out I did not interpret the blurb correctly. This book is two novels, Dead Witch Walking, and The Good the Bad and the Undead. Both of which I'd already read, dammit. Back to the library

[Lokien · Rating 5 out of 5]

So funny! what an original idea, tomatoes who knew?

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enjoyable book. It falls into a category that I like to read. Will finish this series and others by this Authoress. Need I say more. ? ? ? 😎

[Betsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had some good parts. I've read Kim Harrison before. Something about her writing style just doesn't thrill me. I don't know what it is. Good, but not great.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've reviewed these books individually.

[Rachel Sizer · Rating 5 out of 5]

yeah, I'm obsessed.

[Harper · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF, started getting tedious

[VampireNovelFan · Rating 3 out of 5]

DEAD WITCH WALKING
Dead Witch Walking introduces us to the different, but not so different world that is The Hollows. Half of the human population has been wiped out due to a genetically altered tomato epidemic (known as The Turn), and the Inderlander species--comprised of witches, vampires, werewolves, pixies, fairies, demons, and more--come out of hiding to help rebuild society.

This book is the first person perspective of one of those species, Rachel Morgan. Not surprisingly based on the title, she is a witch who is a bounty hunter for a law enforcement-like agency known as the I.S. (Inderlander Security). Unhappy, she strikes out on her own to start her own runner business and is joined by vampire Ivy Tamwood, and her pixie partner, Jenks. The I.S. is none too happy about Rachel taking the vampire with her, so now she's got a bounty on her own head.

While overall this series is my favorite, this book is actually one of my least favorites. Sure, like with every Hollows book I've read, there is something or another that I love, but I actually put this book down before I could get to that part. I read it for a bit, put it down for a while, and then my best friend (who was farther along than me at the time) had to bug me to keep reading since supposedly the future books got better. Well, I was so glad to have heeded her advice. One day I picked it back up, we got to Kalamack's office and that was all she wrote. I am now an avid Hollows enthusiast since 2005.

I love Rachel's character. She is so likable, fun, and funny, simply trying the make the best of the situation she was given. Jenks is such an amazing side kick and it's always amusing imagining him cracking some sort of vulgar joke. Ivy's pretty kick-ass too.

So I warn you that if you have problems finishing this book, please keep it up. It gets so much better (especially by book 3 which is hands-down my favorite until the more recent book 9) and it's really one of the best urban fantasy series you're going to find. I've been reading up a storm lately, so I know. Very few have such an amazing amount of world building, dynamic characters, and an unpredictable plot. It also probably helps that my personal preference tends to be lighter urban fantasy instead of dark urban fantasy.

This book is a 3/5, but I rate the series as a whole like Rachel rates Trent's backside, a 9.5/10.


THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UNDEAD
The second installment of the Rachel Morgan/Hollows series takes place a few months where Dead Witch Walking left off.

Rachel's settling into her freelance career, her roommate situation with Ivy, and her Pixie sidekick, Jenks. She accepts a contract to investigate a wave of witch murders and she goes undercover to spy on her former professor. Rachel suspects Trent Kalamack--murdering drug lord and businessman extraordinaire--of the murders. She's still none to keen on when he trapped her in his office as a mink.

We learn a bit more about Trent in this book, answering a good deal of questions from the first book. I thought this book overall was a little more gruesome than the first book in its description of the bodies. It reminded me a bit more of other dark urban fantasy and horror books. The action and wit are definitely on par, keeping the series from being overly dark.

Personally, I was bored out of my skull with her relationship with Nick. It's sort of hard to trust someone you meet in the rat pits, but what can you do? The romance in this book is sort of blah, at least until the end when things get...interesting to say the least.

Overall, I liked this book tons more than Dead Witch Walking. I originally put that book down until I was badgered to finish it and keep reading by a friend. I didn't have the same issue with book 2. I read it fairly quickly and by the end I wanted to get my hands on Book 3 ASAP!! As a long time Hollows fan, it's really fun to think back on how I felt about each of these books, which eventually led to this becoming my favorite series.

[Michael Benavidez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is this book perfect? Not sure. I want to say that I loved it, but I think I more enjoyed it than loved it. See, this isn't my usual genre. It has all the makings of it, with the supernatural, the world building, the excellent characters, the action, and everything. But something just felt like it wasn't for me at the same time. I've been finished with this book for a while, trying to think of some way to describe it. I enjoyed the first book, i enjoyed the second book, but looking back on it...I don't remember much. Not because i didn't try or just bullshitted my way through the book. I was so into it I never skimmed a damn word. Yet...it's forgettable. Is that possible? Well it is to me.
However, I would say to read it, give it a try. While you may or may not remember the ride, as you go on it, it'll sure be a fun one. My only advice would be to read this edition, the two-in-one. Mostly because the books are episodic, cliff-hangerish. Kinda like a show. The episodes span several days, and at the season finale, to keep you hooked, they don't reveal who the FUCK NAGEN KILLED!!!!
.....
ahem...
sorry about that. Wrong review for another thing.
But you get the gist. There's another two-in-one edition for volumes three and four. I have it. But i don't think i'll be getting to it anytime soon. Still a good entertaining read, if somewhat forgettable. All the characters have an arc, they have a personality, and they aren't overly flawed or perfect. Some stuff is predictable, the clues are there for the reader to pick up right away, and sometimes it feels like that's the point. Where we see things in the context of the world building, and need to know information to understand this world all the better, the characters see it as an oversight because well it's natural to them, and easily miss it. Still may have you rolling your eyes a bit when some stuff is revealed. At least I did.

[Ashley Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sharp, high‑energy two‑book collection that showcases Kim Harrison’s mastery of urban fantasy, character chemistry, and world‑building at full scale.

This Witch for Hire brings together two complete Hollows novels, and the result is a powerhouse reading experience. Harrison’s pacing, humor, and emotional depth shine even brighter when the stories are allowed to stretch into full arcs. Rachel Morgan is at her most compelling here—resourceful, stubborn, and endlessly entertaining as she navigates magic, politics, and the chaos she somehow always attracts.

Harrison’s dialogue remains one of her greatest strengths. Rachel’s dry self‑awareness comes through in lines like, “I don’t go looking for trouble. It just knows my address.” It’s the perfect snapshot of her energy throughout both books: exasperated, brave, and incapable of walking away when someone needs her.

The emotional beats land just as hard. At one point, Rachel reflects, “Power is easy to claim. Harder to live with.” That tension—between what she can do and what she believes she should do—threads through both novels and gives the action real weight.

What makes this compilation so satisfying is how seamlessly the two stories complement each other. You get the full sweep of Harrison’s world: demons, elves, ley lines, shifting alliances, and the complicated relationships that make The Hollows feel alive. The stakes rise naturally, the character development is rich, and the humor keeps everything grounded even when the magic gets wild.

For longtime fans, it’s a fantastic way to revisit Rachel’s evolution. For new readers, it’s an immersive entry point that shows exactly why this series has such staying power.

If you love urban fantasy with heart, grit, and a heroine who refuses to back down, This Witch for Hire is an easy five‑star read.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring, boring, and not very clear. The writing is bland and Rachel Morgan fails as a character to match up with the genre counter-part Harry Dresden. The writing is a pale comparison and not very captivating. The world of Morgan could have used a proper explanation on why the reader should accept law and order institutions having slave contracts and murder-for-hire contracts as standard. Either the law follows the law or it's just a gang with pretty bling.

Vampires in this world are a mess, but at least they don't sparkle. I could have done without all the lesbian-overtones and the constant sex drive, but a mystery novel this isn't so consider yourself warned.

The ONLY saving grace of this book is Jenks. The most bad assed pixie of all. Otherwise, this is a total skip.

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really have enjoyed this book and the "post-Turn" world that Kim Harrison has created. In the first book Dead Witch Walking, Earth Witch, Rachel Morgan is trying to quit the I.S. (Inderland Security) where she is employed as a "runner". The I.S. put a contract out on her life when she takes her partner Ivy, a vampire and her pixy back-up Jenks with her as she tries to start her own investigation firm. The second book The good the bad and the Undead is the further adventures of the group as they try to flush out a serial witch hunter.

[Forrest · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of potential but falls flat.

I've heard the series continues to become better written and more interesting, however the protagonist is extremely aggravating. There are aspects of her personality which, while they may be intentional, leave her with little to no relatability (authority issues) and to which she will cling in spite of even very *basic* logic.

Ultimately the best praise I could give this series and its main character is "like Dresden, but dumber"

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked these up on a whim from SFBC since I liked the genre. Harrison has been added to my list of favorite authors. I think she did an excellent job of developing her characters throughout the first two books while weaving a great storyline. I have the next 4 in the series awaiting my attention now.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

includes Dead Witch Walking read 5-20-2004
and
The Good, the Bad, and the Undead read 1-31-2005

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like stories about witches, vampires, pixies, werewolves, and all the action that goes with catching them, you will love this set. If you are looking for sex or romance, you will be disappointed most of the time. That being said, I really enjoyed this 2 for 1 book, and look forward to reading more about Rachel Morgan and her misadventures.

[LOL_BOOKS]

THE ONLY URBAN FANTASY I'VE LIKED WAS THE FIRST COUPLE OF KIM HARRISON BOOKS AND THE TOBY DAYE BOOKS BY SEANAN MCGUIRE. SOMETIMES I WORRY I'M LETTING AN ENTIRE GENRE PAST ME BY BECAUSE MOST OF IT IS SUCH SHIT, BUT 99% OF EVERYTHING I'VE PICKED UP HAS BEEN CRAP.

I COULDN'T FINISH THE FIRST BOOK OF EITHER OF THOSE, BUT THERE ARE A FEW SERIES I RLY ENJOY.

[Evelyn Porter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting science fiction tale of witches, vampires, pixies, elves, and other supernatural beings co-existing with humans in Cincinnati after a deadly GMO organisim kills off most of the human population. Entertaining, but not for everyone.

[Mary]

I was really upset that I wasn't liking this book. It sounded like it would be a fun read and there are 7 books so I could enjoy a nice series this summer. But it was a complete disappointment. :-( The main character wasn't very consistent and I just could not get into it!

[Helen Bishop · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a great series. Kim Harrison pulls you in. It is easy to relate to rachel morgan and her friends as they try to maneuver around the bureaucracy of this futuristic world. You are rooting for them the whole way through. They are the underdog, but you just want them to succeed.

[June · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stephanie Plum meet Rachel Mariana Morgan. Same concept just throw in some witches, vampires and werewolves. I thought the first book was slow. The second book was better. I have high hopes for volume three.

[Bridget · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am enjoying this more as I getting deeper into Rachel Morgan's world. She is too impulsive but still, a fun character. Also the same phrases used too much ("she scared the crap out of me" is getting old) Really a 4.5.

[Brett]

Fantasy