Jan

Heart of Stone by C.E. Murphy

C.E. Murphy has written a remarkable fantasy story that combines love, heartbreak, self-imposed exile, revenge, and redemption. If you think this describes a soap opera or a romance novel you’re wrong. It’s far from it. C.E. Murphy spins a tale that firmly places the book in the paranormal fantasy genre, but does it in such a way that the human side of the “monsters” is so believable, I found myself sympathizing with even the most deadly of their kind.
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Margrit “Grit” Knight, a young female attorney, literally “runs into” the midst of a murder investigation: someone is killing young women in New York’s Central Park. As the person discovering the latest victim, she’s soon placed under surveillance by the police department. Not because they suspect her, but because she was approached by a mysterious stranger in the park upon finding the body who fits the description of their primary suspect and has been seen in his presence several times since.

The stranger, Alban Korund, introduces Grit to the underworld, something she has a hard time understanding and accepting at first. But after meeting individuals from four of the Five Races (the races of supernatural beings that existed since the dawn of time) and witnessing their powers she’s hard pressed to deny their existence.

Grit soon ends up working for not only Alban (she’s not quite sure of his innocence in the killings) but is also forced to perform investigatory work for one of the vampires. This places her in direct contact (and conflict) with Janks, a member of one of the most violent of the Five Races. Her trial attorney experience, specifically, her negotiation skills, serve her well during these encounters; surprisingly enough, Janks develops an admiration for her. He’s still evil, but he’s impressed by her unwillingness to back down.

In the end, Grit learns the identity of the killer but ends up on the killer’s Potential Victim’s List. Again, she’s forced to use her legal experience when attempting to rationalize with the killer during the climax of the book. C.E. Murphy pulls this off well and does something that I greatly applaud her for: she doesn’t drag out the ending. It’s quick, surprising, and believable.

What I find interesting about this book is that C.E. Murphy writes about aspects of the supernatural world that you don’t come across too often. As a matter of fact, I can’t remember reading any books that reference one of the races discussed in this book. That’s one of the reasons this book works: it’s not a rehash of books written about the more popular supernatural beings, i.e., vampires and werewolves. Although vampires make up one of the races, I won’t tell you about the others because I don’t want to spoil the surprise for you; you’ll be pleasantly surprised to learn about the other cultures. Although some of them are killers, they all have a moral code that they live by.

C.E. Murphy moves the story along by interspersing the mythologies of the Five Races with modern day New York City.

There’s romantic tension between the 3 main characters but C.E. Murphy makes sure it doesn’t detract from the main storyline. Overall this is a great read. At 448 pages you probably won’t read it in an afternoon, but that’s a good thing. There’s a lot to learn here and if it takes a few days to digest some of the information presented, all the better.

This is Book 1 in a trilogy. Book 2 (called “House of Cards”) just came out. I suggest you get started by purchasing Heart of Stone (The Negotiator Trilogy, Book 1) – it’s well worth it.

Here are all of the books in the trilogy, as listed at Amazon:

Heart of Stone (The Negotiator Trilogy, Book 1)
House of Cards (The Negotiator, Book 2)
Hands of Flame (The Negotiator, Book 3)