Death Rites (The Lazarus Codex)

By: E. A. Copen

Narrated by: Travis Baldree

Old gods die hard.

Professional necromancer Lazarus Kerrigan knows all too well that the Big Easy is anything but. Crime is up, business is down, and someone--or something--crushed an innocent girl to death on his doorstep.

After the search for the murderer brings the police to his front door, Laz must prove his innocence by hauling in the real killer with help from the dead.

When the sun sets in New Orleans, more than monsters go bump in the night... And what Laz awakens in his quest for answers might just get him--and everyone else in town--killed.

Fans of The Dresden Files and Iron Druid will love this wisecracking wizard! Get your copy today!

©2018 E.A. Copen (P)2018 E.A. Copen

Meet Lazarus Kerrigan, the new kid!

Move over Dresden and Vesik. There's a new kid in town... Meet Lazarus Kerrigan (Laz for short). A wizard, necromancer, an all around nice guy, and the proprietor of a magic shop in New Orleans, who's just trying to get by, offering up seances that are more showmanship than the real thing, because people really can't handle reality, no matter how much they beg to see their dead mother one final time...
Laz' life is about to get really complicated when the police discover a body on the doorstop of his shop!
Travis Baldree did what Travis Baldree does best, giving us a damn fine narration performance!
Ya' gotta grab this wonderful Urban Fantasy, and stalk the backstreets and graveyards of New Orleans with Laz, as he searches for answers to what's happening!

Highly Recommended start to a new series!

This was a great listen! The story carries itself, and the narrator enhances the story and characters with great voices and narration.

Lazarus is a necromancer. A woman stops him on his way home and tells him someone is trying to kill her. He blow her off only to find her dead on his doorstep the next morning and he is the prime suspect. A female cop, to her chagrin, winds up helping him investigate to find the real murderer, but she is very skeptical throughout and still thinks Laz had something to do with it.

New Orleans is the setting, so there is magic and voodoo, along with Death and Baron Samedi, and they may be trying to take Laz with them for good.

Fun start to a new series that I will be looking for more of.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Great new Urban Fantasy!

I'm a huge Harry Dresden fan and that's what drew me to this book. In the early goings it nearly put me off on it as well. Laz is a Necromancer, but normally in the early parts of the book calls himself a wizard and, since his world seems similar to that of Dresden, he seems like a very poor one. Also, while the narrator was excellent (more on that later), I didn't like the main character's voice at all. I came to realize that my issue with it was that it wasn't Marsters reading Dresden, and really that was a good thing, since they aren't the same character at all. In the second half of the book the story really began to display the differences in the two characters and worlds, and I really got into it. There's a nice smattering of Gaiman's American Gods in there and it looks like more to come if this series continues.

I subtracted a star under "Story" because there were a few times when characters did something a bit stupid for no good reason and because at one time Laz was going to track someone and then it never gets mentioned again. Since I'm in his head, I expected to at least hear why he dropped the idea. Travis Baldree does all the voices and they are all distinct and consistent throughout. I'll look for more read by him. Basically, once the story really kicks off, I found I liked Laz and his world for themselves, not as shadows of the Dresdenverse. I gave the book a 5 stars overall and I'm really looking forward to the next installment.

I received this book for free for an honest review, with no agreement to give it a good score. I just got lucky and it was a great new author for me to keep track of :)

I was was sure at first

I am a huge Dresden fan and for the first half of the book wasn't sure. I liked how similar it is to that other series but during the last half of the book the character and world come to life and now i would like to see a crossover book

if you enjoy dresden, you'll like this

it seems like a knock off, and there are some definite similarities, but dresden is really just a mash up of tropes too. easy read, fun lead character