C.E. Murphy

Mountain Echoes – Walker Papers #8 – by C.E. Murhpy

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Mountain Echoes, Book 8 of the Walker Papers by C.E. Murphy

Title: Mountain Echoes

Author: C.E. Murphy

Series: The Walker Papers

Sexual Content: suggested

Objectional Content: Violence

Synopsis (from Goodreads): You can never go home again.

Joanne Walker has survived an encounter with the Master at great personal cost, but now her father is missing – stolen from the timeline. She must finally return to North Carolina to find him – and to meet Aidan, the son she left behind long ago. 

That would be enough for any shaman to face, but Joanne’s beloved Appalachians are being torn apart by an evil reaching forward from the distant past. Anything that gets in its way becomes tainted – or worse. 

And Aidan has gotten in the way. 

Only by calling on every aspect of her shamanic powers can Joanne pull the past apart and weave a better future. It will take everything she has – and more. 

Unless she can turn back time… 

My Review

After her adventures in Ireland, all Joanne Walker really wants is to sleep for about a week and maybe eat everything in sight. A phone call from an old friend sends her back to North Carolina. Her father is missing and whatever is going on is Joanne’s kind of problem.

Mountain Echoes, like Raven Calls before it, is basically non stop action. Joanne barely has any time to recover from her previous ordeal in Ireland when she’s thrust into another harrowing situation. And then another.

In previous books, we learn some of Joanne’s past, of how she grew up with her father, how she has twins when she was 15 and how the little girl didn’t survive and the boy was put up for adoption. Being back in Qualla Boundary, other things about Joanne’s past come to light. I really enjoyed learning all these things about her and seeing her look at her past from a new, more mature, perspective.

There was honestly nothing about this book I didn’t like. From beginning to end, I was riveted. I felt like I was on the edge of my seat and didn’t want to put the book down for a moment. C.E. Murphy has a knack for ending books on a cliffhanger. I can’t wait to start the final book in the series, Shaman Rises.

My rating for Mountain Echoes is 5 out of 5 stars. I would highly recommend reading the previous books if you haven’t already. I think anyone who enjoy Urban Fantasy would love this series.

Thanks for reading!

Demon Hunts – Walker Papers #5 by C.E. Murphy

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Title: Demon Hunts

Author: C.E. Murphy

Series: The Walker Papers

Sexual Content: suggested

Objectional Content: Violence

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Seattle police detective Joanne Walker started the year mostly dead, and she’s ending it trying not to be consumed by evil. Literally.

She’s proven she can handle the gods and the walking dead. But a cannibalistic serial killer? That’s more than even she bargained for. What’s worse, the brutal demon can only be tracked one way. If Joanne is to stop its campaign of terror, she’ll have to hunt it where it the Lower World, a shamanistic plane of magic and spirits.

Trouble is, Joanne’s skills are no match for the dangers she’s about to face—and her on-the-job training could prove fatal to the people she’s sworn to protect….

My Review

I don’t really have a lot to say about Demon Hunts. Honestly, I loved the hell out of this book! There was nothing I didn’t like about it. The Walker Papers just keeps getting better and better. I really enjoy reading it and I’m always looking forward to the next book. I think I will be sad when I finish the last one. Thankfully, I still have a few to go!

My rating for Demon Hunts is 5 out of 5 stars! If you’ve read the previous books, definitely read this one and if you haven’t read the previous books, what are you waiting for?

Walking Dead – Walker Papers #4 By C.E. Murphy

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Title: Walking Dead

Author: C.E. Murphy

Series: The Walker Papers

Sexual Content: none

Objectional Content: Violence, descriptions of rotting corpses

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

For once, Joanne Walker’s not out to save the world. She’s come to terms with the host of shamanic powers she’s been given, her job as a police detective has been relatively calm, and she’s got a love life for the first time in memory. Not bad for a woman who started out the year mostly dead.

But it’s Halloween, and the undead have just crashed Joanne’s party.

Now, with her mentor Coyote still missing, she has to figure out how to break the spell that has let the ghosts, zombies and even the Wild Hunt come back. Unfortunately, there’s no shamanic handbook explaining how to deal with the walking dead. And if they have anything to say about it — which they do — no one’s getting out of there alive.

My Review

I have to say, I loved this book! Joanne has finally accepted her Shamanic powers and what they mean for her every day life. She can now talk about her powers and the things she does without cringing at herself. She is a great character and it has been a joy watching her grow.

I don’t normally like to gush about books, even when I think they are amazing, because I don’t want to hype them up and then have other people be disappointed based on my opinion. Honestly though, I couldn’t find a single flaw with Walking Dead, there was nothing I disliked about it.

I am enjoying the hell out of this series and can’t wait to get started on the next book!

My rating for Walking Dead is 5 out of 5 stars and I highly recommend reading it if you’ve read the previous books. And if you haven’t read the previous books, I highly recommend you do so!

Have you read any of the Walker Papers? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Thanks for reading!

Coyote Dreams – Walker Papers #3 by C.E. Murphy

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Coyote Dreams book #3 of the Walker Papers by C.E. Murphy

Title: Banshee Cries

Author: C.E. Murphy

Series: The Walker Paper

Sexual Content: Suggested

Objectional Content: Violence

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Much of the city can’t wake up. And more are dozing off each day.

Instead of powerful forces storming Seattle,
a more insidious invasion is happening.
Most of Joanne Walker’s fellow cops are down
with the blue flu–or rather the blue sleep. Yet
there’s no physical cause anyone can point to–and it keeps spreading.

It has to be magical, Joanne figures. But what’s up with the crazy dreams that hit her
every time she closes her eyes? Are they being sent
by Coyote, her still-missing spirit guide? The messages just aren’t clear.

Somehow Joanne has to wake up her sleeping
friends while protecting those still awake,
figure out her inner-spirit dream life and, yeah,
come to terms with these other dreams she’s
having about her boss….

Coyote Dreams starts with Joanne Walker waking up with one hell of a hangover and one very good looking man in her bed. Naturally, this is the start of a chaotic morning for Joanne. Her friend, Billy Holliday, is in a coma, and not long after, his wife. Soon, half the police force is asleep and nothing Joanne does seems to help them.

I’m a little ashamed to say that Coyote Dreams is only the second book I’ve finished this year (and February is over tomorrow!). These last two months have not been great for me for reading. I’d gotten about half way through this book when I suddenly just stopped. Then, two nights ago, I picked it back up and wondered why I stopped reading to begin with!

Joanne has been reluctant from the start to accept her Shamanic powers and her role those powers give her in the world. She’s very good at denying her gifts and deflecting from talking about it by hiding behind sarcasm.

It’s here, in Coyote Dreams, that I think she really starts to accept what she is and what she should be doing. Until now she’s been running mostly on instinct, epically screwing things up while trying to fix something else.

Faced with the consequences of past actions and lacking her spirit guide, Joanne truly has to own up to her power, to accept it and take proper control of it. With no one to rely on but herself, Joanne doesn’t have much of a choice in the matter.

I think that Coyote Dreams is a really big turning point in Joanne’s character. She is really coming into her own and facing those parts of her that she refused to see for so long. The ending made me a bit sad, but it definitely will drive forward the rest of the series.

Coyote Dreams is a solid 4 out of 5 stars and I’d recommend to anyone who likes Urban Fantasy and magic systems based in Native American beliefs.

Thanks for reading!

Banshee Cries – Walker Papers 1.5 by C.E. Murphy

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Banshee Cries. The Walker Papers 1.5 by C.E. Murphy

Title: Banshee Cries

Author: C.E. Murphy

Series: The Walker Paper

Sexual Content: None

Objectional Content: Violence

Synopsis: (from Goodreads):

The last thing reluctant shaman Joanne Walker wants is to be assigned to a case of ritual murders. It’d be creepy enough all on its own, but her boss, already trusting her magic more than Jo does herself, suspects there’s more to it than just a serial killer. As Joanne is pulled more deeply into the bloody mire, she begins to realize this is a murderer with a deadline—the changing winter moon seems to be key to the power they’re building.

But Joanne’s not the only one entangled in the increasingly dangerous magic raised by the killer: she has a protector, someone who has already given up their life to keep Joanne safe…and who may be the only person able to stand between Joanne and a dark power far greater than she’s ready to handle….

My Review

Banshee Cries by C.E. Murphy is a short story that takes place between Urban Shaman and Thunderbird Falls in the Walker Papers series.

Since the events in Urban Shaman that lead to Joanne becoming a Shaman and stopping a crazed killer, she has become resistant to using her powers or even learning more about them. As a person who was always rational and logical for her entire life, it makes sense for her to revert back to that when there is no immediate danger.

There isn’t a lot for me to say about this story, as it is rather short (around 100 pages or so). However, Banshee Cries is an important addition to this series as it gives the reader more insight into Joanne’s mother and the reasons she abandoned Joanne as a baby. If not else, this is an important part in Joanne’s character development. Her life has had a fair amount of trauma and this serves a step in the healing process.

My rating for Banshee Cries is 5 out of 5 stars. I highly recommend anyone who is reading the Walker Papers to read this story as it definitely fills in some holes in Joanne’s life.

Thanks for reading!