Walking Dead
For once, Joanne Walker's not out to save the world. She's come to terms with the host of shamanic powers she's been given, her job as a police detective has been relatively calm, and she's got a love life for the first time in memory. Not bad for a woman who started out the year mostly dead. But it's Halloween, and the undead have just crashed Joanne's party.Now, with her mentor Coyote still missing, she has to figure out how to break the spell that has let the ghosts, zombies and even the Wild Hunt come back. Unfortunately, there's no shamanic handbook explaining how to deal with the walking dead. And if they have anything to say about it–which they do –no one's getting out of there alive.
Читать Walking Dead онлайн беплатно
Praise for
C.E. MURPHY and her books
The Negotiator
Hands of Flame
âFast-paced action and a twisty-turny plot make for a good readâ¦Fans of the series will be sad to leave Margritâs world behind, at least for the time being.â
âRomantic Times BOOKreviews
House of Cards
âViolent confrontations add action on top of tense intrigue in this involving, even thrilling, middle book in a divertingly different contemporary fantasy romance series.â
âLocus
âThe second title in Murphyâs Negotiator series is every bit as interesting and fun as the first. Margrit is a fascinatingly complex heroine who doesnât shy away from making difficult choices.â
âRomantic Times BOOKreviews
Heart of Stone
â[An] exciting series openerâ¦Margrit makes for a deeply compelling heroine as she struggles to sort out the sudden upheaval in her professional and romantic lives.â
âPublishers Weekly
âA fascinating new seriesâ¦as usual, Murphy delivers interesting worldbuilding and magical systems, believable and sympathetic characters and a compelling story told at a breakneck pace.â
âRomantic Times BOOKreviews
The Walker Papers
Coyote Dreams
âTightly written and paced, [Coyote Dreams] has a compelling, interesting protagonist, whose struggles and successes will captivate new and old readers alike.â
âRomantic Times BOOKreviews
Thunderbird Falls
âThoroughly entertaining from start to finish.â
âAward-winning author Charles de Lint
âThe breakneck pace keeps things movingâ¦helping make this one of the most involving and entertaining new supernatural mystery series in an increasingly crowded field.â
âLocus
âFans of Jim Butcherâs Dresden Files novels and the works of urban fantasists Charles de Lint and Tanya Huff should enjoy this fantasy/mysteryâs cosmic elements. A good choice.â
âLibrary Journal
Urban Shaman
âA swift pace, a good mystery, a likable protagonist, magic, dangerâUrban Shaman has them in spades.â
âJim Butcher, author of The Dresden Files series
âC.E. Murphy has written a spellbinding and enthralling urban fantasy in the tradition of Tanya Huff and Mercedes Lackey.â
âThe Best Reviews
âTightly plotted and nicely paced, Murphyâs latest has a world in which ancient and modern magic fuse almost seamlesslyâ¦Fans of urban fantasy are sure to enjoy this first book in what looks to be an exciting new series.â
âRomantic Times BOOKreviews
[nominee for Reviewerâs Choice Best Modern Fantasy]
C.E. Murphy
Walking Dead
BOOK FOUR: THE WALKER PAPERS
AUTHOR NOTE
Welcome back to the Walker Papers!
Itâs been five books in two different series and a handful of short stories and comic scripts for me since Iâve written a Joanne Walker story. That made coming back to Jo and her world a little strangeâwould I still know how to write her?
Some things, it seems, are like falling off a bicycle. I hope you enjoy the return to the Walker Papers as much as I have, and by the way, if you havenât, stop by my Web site, http://cemurphy.net, and read âRabbit Tricks,â a Walker Papers short story that fits between Coyote Dreams and this book.
Catie
This oneâs for Frank Darcy,
who taught us all to raise a glass to life
Acknowledgments:
Sarah Palmero, Nicholas Whyte, Paul Knappenberger (better known as âTrentâ in these acknowledgment pages), Cameron Banks and Katrina Lehto read early drafts of this book in hopes of helping come up with a title, and, since they were doing that anyway, gave some helpful feedback on the shape of the story. If I missed anybody in that list, I beg forgiveness, but I think it was just those five. Also, Laura âSoapturtleâ Denson helped me keep my blog software up-to-date when I had no brain left for such things myself. Thank you all tremendously.
There are the usual suspects who need thanking: my husband Ted, who does a remarkable job of maintaining sanity when Iâm in the worst of writer-modes, and both my agent Jennifer Jackson and my editor, Mary Theresa Hussey, who inevitably make my books more worth reading. Cover artist Hugh Syme and Harlequin art-department wizards Kathleen Oudit and Fion Ngan also have my undying gratitude for giving me such a beautiful, beautiful book.
I would also like to thank the dozens of people who kept e-mailing me to ask if there was going to be another Walker Papers novel, and when it would be out. Here you go!
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER ONE
Saturday, October 29, 9:45 p.m.
My wig itched like a son of a bitch.
I wanted to say I didnât know how Iâd gotten myself into it, but the truth was, I knew exactly how I had: Phoebe Kostelis, normally my fencing teacher. Tonight, however, she played the part of my short Sapphic sidekick, working the crowd outside the party hall like sheâd been born to it. They looked happy to be worked, since she wore only slightly more clothing than I did and had a body that even I coveted in a strictly Platonic sense.
