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Dead Sexy (# 2) by Tate Hallaway
02/08/2008 . Source: Eamonn Murphy 
pub: Headline. 309 page enlarged paperback. Price: £ 6.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-07553-3657-9). Buy Dead Sexy in the USA - or Buy Dead Sexy in the UK  check out websites: www.madaboutbooks.com, www.reviewbooks.com and www.headline.co.uk
'Dead Sexy' is the follow up to 'Tall, Dark And Dead', Tate Hallaway's first novel which introduced us to witch Garnet Lacey , her friends, enemies and co-workers.
Garnet's guilty secret is that she murdered six Vatican witch hunters one Halloween night. As she was possessed by a Goddess called Lilith at the time it wasn't entirely her fault but she fled to Madison, Wisconsin and changed her appearance, just to be safe.
So when Special Agent Dominguez, a tall, handsome, psychic FBI officer comes into her magic shop looking for a suspect she's worried. When he shows her a picture of herself as she used to look, she's even more worried. Shortly after that the zombies show up.
Garnet is helped through her troubles by her current vampire boyfriend Sebastian Von Traum and by her ex-boyfriend Parrish, who is also a vampire. She has the Goddess Lilith inside her, too, ready to be released if things get rough. All in all, she's pretty safe.
Too safe, actually. Having Lilith makes Garnet a bit like Kwai Chang Caine in the old 'Kung-Fu' television series. No matter how much he suffered at the hands of rough cowboys the viewer always knew he was secretly death on legs and would sort them all out in the end. Your only worry was for the Quakers, Sodbusters, Mormons or whatever non-violent minority he had befriended that week. Garnet, likewise, is never in any real danger but has to keep her friends safe.
I thought having Garnet cast a love spell on the FBI man was a mistake. It helped keep the story moving along but it was not really in character. The first book reminded me, in a minor way, of Raymond Chandler. This one made me think of a letter he once wrote to his publisher assuring them that his new book was brilliant but something had gone wrong with the plot. Chandler's writing was engaging enough to overcome this flaw.
So is Tate Hallaway's, just about. Garnet still has a fetching narrative voice but I found this one a bit of a disappointment after her excellent debut. It wasn't exactly lacklustre but it lacked the lustre of 'Tall, Dark And Dead'. Hallaway has all the ingredients here for a successful series: good characters, a funky heroine and a well-crafted modern fantasy setting in small town America. I hope she keeps going with it.
This here book is a bit of a blip but only compared to the first one. Taken on its own merits it's not at all bad and still worth reading.
Eamonn Murphy
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