Blending the realms of Paranormal Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Rebecca Alexander brings us The Secrets of Life and Death, the first book in her Jackdaw Hammond series. Here in the US this is pretty much a new release. We just got this novel last October from Broadway Books (a Crown Publishing imprint, part of the Penguin Random House family) with the sequel, The Secrets of Blood and Bone, released in September (Working on that review as well). The Novel however was initially published in the UK in 2013 by Del Rey UK, with the second installation published in 2014. Sorry UK readers, but its new to us.
In The Secrets of Life and Death, Alexander takes us on two journeys separated by over 500 years. In present day England, a university Professor is brought in to consult when occult symbols are found on the body of a young girl. Professor Felix Guichard is top this novel what Robert Langdon is in Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. Felix’s research and investigation bring him to meet Jackdaw Hammond, the titular character of the series. Jack is strange girl who holds some stranger secrets, among them that she is dead, or rather she should be.
On the other side of the story, in the 16th century we Edward Kelly, assistant to Dr. John Dee and apparently a medium for an angel. Dee is a physician, alchemist and dabbler in the occult. Dee and Kelly are actual historical figures. Dee practiced the aforementioned skills while advising Queen Elizabeth. In this story they are called to Poland to help the King’s niece, Elizabeth Bathroy, who is suffering from an unknown and virtually untreatable ailment.
Both of these women have one thing in common: they are on borrowed time. Their lives are extended by magic. The magic system here is a bit unique. The only other series I can think that uses a similar structure (though still quite different) is Peter V. Brett’s Demon Cycle series, of which I am very fond. As Felix investigates, we delve further into both the accounts of Edward Kelly during his and Dr. Dee’s work with Elizabeth Bathroy, and the world surrounding Jack. These two stories turn out to be intertwined in a way that ties the novel together quite nicely.
I definitely enjoyed the book. Like 4 out of 5 stars enjoyed it. The combination of urban fantasy and historical fiction worked very well for me. It gets more interesting if you know who Elizabeth Bathory is. I will not spoil it here, but I will link to the Wikipedia article if you are interested. The magic system combined with the dark history really turns out something very different and enjoyable. I also think the characters were well developed. You get a good feel for who most of them are and why there are where they are. I find this to be true for both time periods. I have seen some criticism of the jumping back and forth, but in SciFi and Fantasy novels, jumping between characters, settings and time periods is not really unfamiliar, so I had no problem with it. The only minor thing for me was that I felt the ending was a bit predictable, but satisfyingly, so It seemed the only way to end it.
I also wanted to note that not only did I really like this book, but I was also very excited by the fact that I knew a sequel was coming. When I wrote the bulk of the review I was watching out for it. By the time I was getting back to finish his up, I already had a review copy of the next book. Now at the time of uploading this, I have already finished that book too. I hope to have that review up shortly as well.
Disclaimer: I receive this review copy through GoodReads First Reads program.