This Case Is Gonna Kill Me by Phillipa Bornikova
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Linnet Ellery is from a good, affluent Connecticut family who can trace their ancestry back to the settling of America. However money doesn’t mean much without power, and in this world, it’s held by the various supernatural races – the Vampires, Werewolves and Alfar (elves).
Linnet was fostered with vampires as a young child, grew up around them, graduated University as a Lawyer, and has now been placed at the prestigious White Fang Law Firm, Ishmael, McGillary, and Gold. Her first task is to assist Chip Westin on a stagnating case, one which has been in arbitration for seventeen years.
When Linnet narrowly survives a werewolf attack that kills Chip, she thinks it’s associated with the case, and begins investigating why someone would want to kill Chip. Picking at things the powerful would rather she’d not pick at, Linnet soon finds herself the target of multiple murder attempts. Can she solve the case, or will she end up like Chip?
I really enjoyed this tale, it was a solid paranormal murder mystery with a well thought out world, and some excellent, pro-feminist social commentary on sexism in the working world. Bornikova started out with some work place tension, and kept turning it up until you fear for the characters’ lives, and wonder how they can possibly escape the circumstances their in. When they do manage, it’s through legitimate means, not some deus ex-machina.
I do hope a sequel is in the works!
prk.
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