Review: The Witness for the Dead Katherine Addison

Title: The Witness for the Dead
Author: Katherine Addison with Liam Gerrard (Narrator) 
Series:  The Chronicles of Osreth #2
Genre: Fantasy/Mystery
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Publication Date: June 22, 2021
Edition: Audiobook, 8 hours, 12 minutes
Source: Library
Purchase: Amazon US | Apple Books  | Barnes & Noble | BAM | Bookshop | Kobo | Powell's | 

 

 

 

Synopsis:

   When the young half-goblin emperor Maia sought to learn who had set the bombs that killed his father and half-brothers, he turned to an obscure resident of his father’s Court, a Prelate of Ulis and a Witness for the Dead. Thara Celehar found the truth, though it did him no good to discover it. He lost his place as a retainer of his cousin the former Empress, and made far too many enemies among the many factions vying for power in the new Court. The favor of the Emperor is a dangerous coin. 
   Now Celehar lives in the city of Amalo, far from the Court though not exactly in exile. He has not escaped from politics, but his position gives him the ability to serve the common people of the city, which is his preference. He lives modestly, but his decency and fundamental honestly will not permit him to live quietly. As a Witness for the Dead, he can, sometimes, speak to the recently dead: see the last thing they saw, know the last thought they had, experience the last thing they felt. It is his duty use that ability to resolve disputes, to ascertain the intent of the dead, to find the killers of the murdered. 
   Now Celehar’s skills lead him out of the quiet and into a morass of treachery, murder, and injustice. No matter his own background with the imperial house, Celehar will stand with the commoners, and possibly find a light in the darkness. 

   Katherine Addison returns to the glittering world she created for her beloved novel, The Goblin Emperor, in this stand-alone sequel.

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This is a great sequel/spin-off from The Goblin Emperor. Although, I wouldn't be opposed to being with Maia again. 

 

I don't generally read mysteries, but the one(s) in this book kept me interested and engaged. The content aside, this book was rather cozy at times. Thara Celehar is a very kind character, extremely empathetic and I wish he were real so we could be friends. 

 

When I realized this book was also following multiple mysteries, I was concerned that it would be hard to follow. But that ended up not being a problem, as the mysteries are more of the background to story. This book is more so about Thara Celehar, than the mysteries out-right. There are books that, like this one, are more character driven and the plot is more in the background that end up not working. Sometimes that's because I find the characters uninteresting and sometimes it's because the plot is nonsensical, that then make the character motives not make sense. This was not the case in this book. 

 

Even with the plot being more in the background, I was still invested in what happened to each character. I wanted to know what happened, and I wanted justice for those characters. Even the ones who were not kind to the those around them. 

 

Thara Celehar is such an earnest character, I could see myself re-reading this series. Reading them via-audio book has more to do with some of the language in how people talk in this series. I think if I were to re-read them as either physical, or Ebook could add to the experience for me. I can absorb the information fine as audio-books, I just struggle envisioning things with audio-books.

 

 

Side-note, the Narrator, Liam Gerrard 10/10. He did a great job.