Plague ravages the countryside and alters the behaviour of
those who are so far unaffected in the Araneae nation.
Different cultures live apart and fear one another, so when
a young girl of the Segestriidae people is caught grave
robbing by a man of the Mimetidae, she instantly thinks he
is a cannibal. She fights hard to get away and feels she
has nothing to lose; all her family are dead. The man,
Murdoch, overpowers her however and brings his captive back
to his town, where a woman called Mana learns her name -
Kaidi - and bathes her, realising that Kaidi is well
connected and promised in marriage to an allied clan.
A TIME OF DYING is the latest in the Araneae Nation
series. The Araneae people can produce silk like spider
silk from their fingertips and this is used in creative
ways, such as tying up a prisoner and tying back a girl's
long hair. But Mana explains that the town has almost no
meat since the plague struck and the men are unhappy about
constant vegetable soup. The majority of deaths were among
women but strangely, men have vanished or been found with
broken necks. Kaidi meets many of the townsfolks and is
obliged to share a room with Murdoch so he can guard her
and stop her from running away. She is very inquisitive and
can't help investigating the alleged recovery from
infection of one woman, as nobody has been known to survive
the plague. Her betrothed is coming however, and she's
having second thoughts about whether that life is really
what she wants....
I enjoyed the previous book, A Cast of Shadows which had
fewer characters, and this one does require more
concentration on its populated pages. This is a dark
fantasy entering the realm of horror, for a plenitude of
corpses is bound to attract some rather nasty beings.
Hailey Edwards concentrates on the gritty details in her
world-building and forests or castles feel very real. A
TIME OF DYING will appeal to those who like a touch of
adult romance in their fantasy, a dark adventure with
crystals, winged harbingers, a spade-wielding heroine and a
handsome guardsman with a venomous bite.
Once the future Segestriidae maven, Kaidi lived a privileged
life. Now she spends her nights haunting cities ravaged by
the plague. Spade in hand, she stalks rows of freshly dug
graves for corpses…and then she takes their heads.
Her new life is caked in blood and spattered with gore, but
it’s hers. At least until—to her fury—she’s caught napping.
A plague survivor by the skin of his teeth, Murdoch risks
his neck to solve the mysteries left in its wake. Bodies
have gone missing. Guards have left their posts and never
returned home.
When he rouses a female dozing among the dead, he’s
unprepared for the violence of her response. Or his. Beneath
the grime, she’s lovely. Too bad the blood under her
fingernails belongs to his clansmen.
He has no choice but to follow this alluring creature deeper
into her world of winged beasts and flesh-eating monsters.
She holds the knowledge he craves, but the price is high—and
they may both pay for it with their lives.
Warning: This book contains one heroine in desperate need of
a bath and one hero willing to wash away her sins. Expect
threats, swears and general cursing. Love is a slippery
slope, and these two are sliding.
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