I finished Red and Dead yesterday and here is what I thought: it's a neat little urban fantasy (just under 300 pages), which fairly zips along. I had some serious fun reading it and would recommend it to anyone who likes the genre.
Ok, so what did I like about it? Well, to begin with, I was fairly surprised to find that it was not set in London (colour me intrigued!) and there are hardly any police officers mentioned throughout. Don't get me wrong, I have loved some of the urban fantasies set in our fair capital but it is nice to see some other places getting a mention. I was born and bred in Liverpool, so I might be a bit biased but it is a place that lends itself well to the more spooky aspects of fantasy. I haven't lived there for a while so it was also nice to revisit some old haunts. Yes, the Author does play a bit loose with the geography but this is acknowledged in the notes and it wasn't as issue for me. I loved that the Author gave the city such a vivid atmosphere that it becomes a character in itself. The use of the Liver birds was a personal favourite of mine, as was some of the other local legends that werer used.
I also liked the premise of a normal person goes Weird. Lily is bog standard early thirties who ends up dead but doesn't stop living. She's a cafe owner who know has to remember to pretend to breath in order to not freak out her customers. She has no idea what is going on or what the rules of being dead are. It's fun to see a character navigate through an unknown situation, although some of the other (still alive) characters handle it better than Lily does! I also liked the use of revenants as the main undead population we interact with as I feel that I haven't come across them a lot except for being killed as a side plot for magic users (mainly). Because of that, the plot seemed fresh in a somewhat overcrowded genre.
The characters are a lively (or not) bunch. Lily is somewhat introverted, sarky and a little put out by her circumstances. She can come across as a bit whingy but I feel that I could give her some leeway considering. Her best friend Izzy is more sociable, if a bit flaky but honestly takes Lily's lack of life in a fairly casual way. Both of them have a realistic feel to them, which added to my enjoyment. The or banter helped to bring some humour to the preceedings but there is a lot of swearing. A lot of swearing! Most of the other characters that we get a feel for are undead of some kind. Some are a lot more fleshed out than others but that's to be expected. There are a lot of mysteries around some of these characters which are not answered here but with, currently, six books in the the series, this is to be expected. There are some local famous personalities dropped in, which added to the fun. And I did Google who one of the characters might be - I probably spoilered myself here but it did give me a giggle.
I did have a lot of fun with Red and Dead. It's not going to win any literary rewards but I thought it was an enjoyable read that scratched my urban fantasy itch. It's full of hints and mysteries that I hope will be explored further in the series, so the next book has been added to the ever expanding TBR. I was recommend this to anyone who enjoys urban fantasy, especially for those that like to see some other places than London and see a relatively underused set of the undead explored.