C. E. Murphy

The Walker Papers — (2005-2012) Publisher: Joanne Walker has three days to learn to use her shamanic powers and save the world from the unleashed Wild Hunt. No worries. No pressure. Never mind the lack of sleep, the perplexing new talent for healing herself from fatal wounds, or the cryptic, talking coyote who appears in her dreams. And if all that's not bad enough, in the three years Joanne's been a cop, she's never seen a dead body — but she's just come across her second in three days. It's been a bitch of a week. And it isn't over yet.

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Urban Shaman

In Urban Shaman, the first installment of The Walker Papers, C.E. Murphy creates a character who's rather similar to a number of other urban fantasy heroines and makes her someone worth reading about.

Joanne Walker has a background with the supernatural but has rejected its influences in her life. But now she is being forcibly drawn back into the world of faerie and magic.

Urban Shaman was interesting enough to keep me turning pages. The characters were well-written and I appreciated that C.E. Murphy was able to tease us with a bit of romantic interest without moving the story completely into paranormal romance.

Urban Shaman was a nice read. —John Hulet

The Inheritors' Cycle — (2008-2009) Science-Fantasy. Publisher: In a world where religion has ripped apart the old order, Belinda Primrose is the queen’s secret weapon. The unacknowledged daughter of Lorraine, the first queen to sit on the Aulunian throne, Belinda has been trained as a spy since the age of twelve by her father, Lorraine’s lover and spymaster. Cunning and alluring, fluent in languages and able to take on any persona, Belinda can infiltrate the glittering courts of Echon where her mother’s enemies conspire. She can seduce at will and kill if she must. But Belinda’s spying takes a new twist when her witchlight appears. Now Belinda’s powers are unlike anything Lorraine could have imagined. They can turn an obedient daughter into a rival who understands that anything can be hers, including the wickedly sensual Javier, whose throne Lorraine both covets and fears. But Javier is also witchbreed, a man whose ability rivals Belinda’s own... and can be just as dangerous. Amid court intrigue and magic, loyalty and love can lead to more daring passions, as Belinda discovers that power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.

The Queen's Bastard: Prose is lovely; can't get a grip on the heroine

On paper, The Queen's Bastard is right up my alley. Court intrigue plus magic plus sex? Where do I sign up? I've seen comparisons to the Kushiel series and it's not hard to see why; it's partly the intrigue/magic/sex combination and partly the prose, which is lush and has moments of exquisite beauty. It was the prose that hooked me from the first page.

Unfortunately, other factors "unhooked" me later in the book, and now I'm three-quarters of the way through The Queen's Bastard and not really feeling the urge to go on.

First of all, having the Queen's secret illegitimate daughter become a spy is requiring a lot of suspension of disbelief on my part. One would think Queen Lorraine would want to overprotect Belinda, even if she didn't want to acknowledge her, in case there came a time when she needed to reveal her parentage and name her heir to the throne. So I don't think Lorraine would be sending Belinda into mortal danger. And even if Lorraine never planned to legitimize Belinda or name her heir, Belinda would be a valuable piece on the board in terms of dynastic marriages. So I can't see Lorraine sending Belinda to seduce in the name of espionage. She'd want to keep her untouched. Stifling, maybe, but such was the life of noblewomen of the time C.E. Murphy is evoking. Jacqueline Carey's Phedre was able to do the spy/courtesan thing because she was a commoner.

I managed to shove this out of my mind, though, and sink into the story, at least until Belinda lost my sympathy completely. I think what Murphy is trying to show is that Belinda's witchpower, once unleashed, takes over her in some way and goads her to dominate others, but I feel like it was taken too far in the scene where Belinda sets up her maid to be raped. Belinda lost me there. I put down the book for about a week after that, and when I started reading it again, I had to put the rape out of my mind in order to keep going and keep caring what happened to Belinda. Belinda's sexual aggressiveness seems pasted on; if this was part of the character's personality, there needed to be hints of it sooner. As it is, the dominant Belinda fits uneasily alongside the daytime Belinda and her "stillness."

I will say that I enjoyed the conflict within Belinda about her motives for being with Javier. It was interesting to watch her shift from doing it as a scheme to further Lorraine's ends, to wondering what she and Javier could do as a team. But, now I find myself simply bogged down. I don't know if Belinda's supposed to be the heroine or the villain, and I've lost all my interest in the dramas of Prince Javier's circle of friends. It's a pity; I was so excited to read this book and now I can't seem to prod myself to finish it. Maybe I'll come back to it with fresh eyes another time and give it another try. —Kelly Lasiter