Murder of Crows – The Book
Murder of Crows is the second book in The Other series by Anne Bishop. We return to the world that’s a distorted mirror of ours except humans are not the top of the food chain their. They’re are other stronger, original species that rule the planet. They merely tolerate the humans but many humans want more. They want control.
Murder of Crows takes place shortly after the first book, Written in Red, ends. We pick up with Meg firmly esconced in the Courtyard (aka habitat) of The Others. She’s recovered from the injuries she suffered previously and Lakeside is recovering from the damage resulting from the attempt to kidnap Meg.
The story kicks off literally with Meg’s dream, almost prophecy regarding danger to the Crows (both the shapeshifting Others and normal crows). As we learned briefly in the previous book, there are new drugs on the scene. These drugs are being used to embolden the humans and hurt the others. It’s not long before Simon pieces the puzzle together to figure out the source of these drugs. This leads him back to Meg’s origin.
Murder of Crows – My Thoughts
One of my pet peeves about the first book was the author’s tendency to jump into many different point of views. We would see each event from multiple view points which I felt slowed down the story. I feared when this book started, it would be burdened with the same issues. I was wrong. The story carried primarily with the point of views of Meg, Simon and Monty and it flowed much better.
The other thing I appreciated about this story is it wasn’t Meg-centric. Don’t get me wrong, her visions move the story along. Yet, she’s necessarily the center of it. She’s not the heroine that rushes headlong into dangerous situations. She’s growing into herself, learning her strengths and weaknesses. As a mater of fact, when the violent conflict of the book occurs, she remains safely behind. I find that a refreshing change from other heroines such as Temperance Brennan and Kay Scarpetta who always seem to not use their brains and get into trouble.
Lastly, I appreciate the drawn out relationship between Meg and Simon. It rings true, that Meg, though twenty-four, having no life experience, would not understand her developing feelings. And Simon, though more experienced, doesn’t know how to feel about the special kind of human that is Meg. I continue to read the series not just to learn more about the world but because I enjoy the characters and want to see how things turn out.
With Written in Red I was torn about giving that book four stars (I really liked it), and did but Murder of Crows firmly falls into that rating. As I’ve said before, if you like Urban Fantasy, give this series a go.